


Realizations

by orphan_account



Category: Star Fox Series
Genre: Angst, But most likely I probably will at some point, Developing Relationship, Eventual Smut, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, I don’t know when or if I’m going to write smut, M/M, Slow Burn, The angst is not very extreme but it’s still there somewhat
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:54:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 28,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25484257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: After taking over his father’s legacy as a leader, Fox McCloud chose not to dwell on the past that put him in this position to begin with. When he finally does, it proves to take a bit of a toll on his mental state when he allows the thoughts and memories to surface, so his team does his best to help him out. While all of this is going on, a crush on one of his teammates begins to uncover itself as well, and Fox is finding himself having a hard time hiding it.—Although this work does not stray far from the game’s actual canon, I added quite a bit of my own headcanons into the mix since a lot of the character’s histories are rather left in the dark.
Relationships: Falco Lombardi/Fox McCloud
Comments: 10
Kudos: 38





	1. Chapter 1

Yelling could be heard down the hallway of the Great Fox as the leader of the ship, Fox McCloud, begrudgingly stepped out of his quarters. The sound of the door closing behind him was immediately replaced by a shouting voice, which caused the vulpine’s ears to twitch cautiously. Was there already trouble, this early in the morning? Surely not; If there was, Peppy would have already called him in and urged him to hurry out of his room.

Trying to calm himself down and will his fur to lie flat, Fox kept at a steady pace as he walked to the control room. His peace did not last long when he heard a second raised voice joining the first, the pitch unmistakably giving away that it was no other than Slippy’s. He could only guess that the first voice was likely Falco. Now fully alarmed, the leader wasted no time in checking on his crew.

“Status?” Fox announced, entering the room when the doors moved to the side to allow him entry, activated by his frantic motion. “Status? What’s going on?”

Fox was confused by the sight that greeted him, his eyes immediately landing on Peppy who was sat at his station. He was cleaning up a mess that had been left behind, ignoring a cup of coffee that was set to the side that had likely gone cold. The vulpine approached him, confusion and disorientation visible in his face. “Peppy?”

Peppy turned around to look him in the eyes, making eye contact then prying his gaze away with a soft snort. “You look like you just woke up, son,” the hare commented. 

“I kinda did,” Fox rubbed the back of his head out of embarrassment. “I heard shouting. Is everything alright?”

“What, them two over there?” Peppy pointed his gaze towards the corner of the room. If Fox looked closely enough, he could see the top of Falco’s head on the other side of a desk. “Loud as always. Everything’s fine, Fox. ‘Cept for this mess that Falco left at my station last night.”

Without another word, Fox helped the hare grab some of the trash, scooping the remains in his arms and taking it to the nearest trash bin, disposing of the mess. He was surprised with how the hare seemed to be keeping his cool, especially at this time of the morning. He knew his older teammate tended to nag them around, though Fox never really minded. Peppy would always be a good teammate and friend.

“Want me to go heat that up for you?” Fox asked the hare. He realized he never showed his appreciation much for Peppy. He was very important to Fox’s life—a valued member of their team, as well as becoming almost like a father figure after the tragic disappearance of his own father. Plus, Fox figured he’d probably need it, as the vulpine’s ears twitched once again at the sound of yelling. Now that he was in the same room, Fox realized that they were shouts of excitement.

“I got it,” Peppy brushed him off, wiping a gloved paw over the top of his desk. “You go on and see what those two are doing.”

“So we’ve got nothing going on?” Fox asked to make sure, a small hint of anxiety kicking in. It always seemed like at least something went wrong whenever everything was chill.

“We’ve been at our most relaxed for days now, Fox,” Peppy commented. “As much as I like to make sure we’re never slacking off, even I have to admit that things are as calm as ever. I’m sure. Just be on your alert if I call ya.”

“Right,” Fox nodded, breathing out a small thanks before dipping his head and retreating, unaware if the hare even took notice of his show of respect before turning back to his station, but he didn’t stop to ask. Despite Fox being the team leader, he still made sure to show respect to those much older than him.

The curious vulpine padded over to the source of the loud noise to find Falco and Slippy seated on the floor. Slippy was hunched over, legs crossed, his rounded, amphibious fingers pounding away at a hand-held video game console, eyes glued to the screen. Falco was lying on his stomach across from the frog, also tapping at his own little console. The two barely even acknowledged their friend as he approached.

“Hey,” Fox greeted them, plopping down right beside Falco. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t even receive a greeting, though the vulpine did not expect much. Out of boredom, Fox propped one leg on Falco’s back, and the avian hardly reacted.

“You two freaked me out earlier,” Fox commented in the silence, an ear twitching every time at the sound of a button being harshly clicked. “I thought we were getting attacked by every enemy in the galaxy, by the sounds of it.”

Fox rested his chin in the palm of his paw, watching the two of them. His eyes drifted from the back of Falco’s head to his console, a small smirk forming on his muzzle as he thought of an idea. Swiftly, he grabbed ahold of Falco’s console and snatched it from his grip, laughing aloud at the resulting pixelated chirps laid out in a small tune, signifying a game over for the avian.

“Alright!” Slippy’s voice came excitedly, his long tongue darting out of his mouth to tap his screen in happiness.

“Damn it, Fox!” Falco immediately shot up, switching positions to move on his knees, glaring daggers at the red fox. The bird huffed as he irritatedly brushed down the clothes over his stomach from where they had bunched together from his position. “I was so close to winning!”

“Were not!” Slippy teased him before the vulpine even had the chance to respond. He showed his screen to Falco, pointing at it. “Look at the score, see? I’m way ahead of you in points. You would have lost anyways.”

Fox looked at Falco’s screen, moving away in a quick movement when the bird made his first attempt to grab it back. “I dunno, Falco,” he began. “Slippy’s kinda right. Let me try, I’ll beat him for you.”

“I can do it myself, thank you,” Falco grit out sarcastically when he succeeded in grabbing the console back, making the fox’s ears perk up in surprise. Falco’s feathers were ruffled, but they began to lie flat. Despite his sarcastic anger, he still held a tone full of playful fondness. “Besides, you have your own console. Why don’t you join us? You got nothin’ else to do, do you?”

“Oh, can I? Let me go grab it,” Fox answered with a toothy smile. He moved to get up but stopped whenever Falco reached beside himself and whipped out the vulpine’s console, held tauntingly between two feathered fingers.

Fox quickly tried to grab it from him, only imagining the worse when he thought of a scenario of the console slipping from his fingers and breaking on the hard flooring of the ship. “You went in my room?” the vulpine asked incredulously, wincing when Falco raised his hand away from Fox’s reach, flipping the console between his fingers until it was gripped in his palm.

“Yeah, while you were sleeping like a newborn puppy,” Falco teased him, eyes narrowed. “What do you say? Do I get nothing for my generosity and thoughtfulness in including you?”

“Man, shut up,” Fox laughed, moving on his knees and quickly snatching the console from the avian, placing a paw on the bird’s shoulder so he couldn’t move it further. “Thanks, idiot.”

“The game should already be in the console,” Slippy commented, laughing briefly at the two’s quarreling. Fox popped out the tiny cartridge, nodding in confirmation when it was indeed the game they had been playing.

“I’ll set up a room,” the frog offered as Fox switched his game on. 

The game they were playing had polygonal airships that looked similar to arwings. In the multiplayer mode, the general idea was that each player had a certain amount of lives, and to get points to win, they had to shoot each other out of the sky. Falco played the singleplayer mode almost constantly, excusing it as “aiming practice”, though Fox had yet to figure out if it truly had a positive effect on his piloting skills.

Amidst their jobs as pilots to protect the surrounding planets, while doing planetary checks to make sure people were safe, it was easy to forget that the three were still teenagers. Fox and Slippy had turned eighteen a few months back, while Falco had turned nineteen close to the same time. They were serious about their jobs, but even they still needed to kick back and have fun every once in a while.

“When we get back to Corneria, maybe we should get Peppy one of these,” Fox commented idly as his system powered on. The start up played a small tune. “Get him to play with us one day. I think if he gave it a shot he’d like it.”

“That old man? We’d be using the rest of our lifespans trying to teach him how to turn it on,” Falco joked lightly, smirking when he heard Slippy bust out in a joyous laughter, unable to hold it back.

Fox, too, had trouble controlling the snort of laughter that escaped his mouth at the comment. He elbowed Falco playfully. “Hey, come on, he knows more about our technology than you think! Things weren’t that different when he was our age, you know.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Falco laughed to himself. “Room open, Slip?”

“You got it!” Slippy responded, adjusting his position to stretch out his legs before crossing them back. “Go ahead and join in.”

Fox watched as Falco flopped back down on his stomach, joining Slippy’s game room. The vulpine booted up his own cartridge and connected to the room. “Okay, we’re all in.”

Slippy smiled as he started their game, and Fox wasted no time in using the control sticks to fly the polygonal arwing around the map, trying to find his first victim. An arwing off in the distance began to shoot at him, and as Fox grew closer to it, a ‘player 2’ label appeared overhead, and the vulpine immediately knew he was dealing with Falco.

The two fired between each other before Fox managed to shoot down Falco and the two shouted, one of excitement from the red fox and one of disbelief from the bird. As Falco waited through the brief downtime before his respawn, Fox quickly clicked his control stick to the side, leaving the area before the avian could get his vengeance. 

“Where are you, Slip?” Fox spoke idly, narrowed eyes hooked on his screen as he observed the rendering area on his screen, looking for any signs of movement. He quickly swerved to the side when the game’s volume played the sound of an arwing’s blasts, avoiding an attack from the frog in question. Slippy giggled in response but only pursued him harder, managing to make the vulpine lose his first life.

The round lasted a bit longer and ended with Fox in first place, Slippy in second, and Falco in last. Fox raised his arms up in victory, yipping childishly and allowing his body to fall forward, playfully flopping down across Falco’s back. He briefly knocked the breath out of the bird’s lungs but he quickly regained it and flipped over off his stomach beneath the canine, wrestling Fox off of him and toppling him to the ground, consoles forgotten. Slippy laughed as he joined in, dogpiling on top of Fox and helping the bird hold him down. 

“Hey!” Fox let out a startled laugh and moved his head quickly to the side, avoiding the sudden attack of Slippy’s tongue as it shot out to flick him in the face. 

“Can you boys be any louder? You three are acting like a bunch of rabbit kits,” came Peppy’s voice from the other side of the room where the hare stood at his desk. When Fox squirmed out of the pinned grip that Slippy and Falco had on him, he sat up straight to see that his older teammate was holding his cup of coffee from earlier. Fox could see the steam coming off the mug from where he sat, so he could only assume the hare had heated it up at some point while they were playing. Fox was so focused on the game, he hadn’t even noticed Peppy slip out of the control room.

Now that Fox thought about it, if Peppy had been in the room during their earlier discussion about him, he would have likely commented on it. Fox had barely noticed the silence on the hare’s end when that conversation was taking place.

“I dunno, is that a challenge?” Falco smirked playfully, looking Peppy in the eyes. The hare snorted and rolled his eyes, though they could all see the fondness that gleamed in his eyes.

“No need to try, Lombardi. You’ve already won,” Peppy shot back, a vague smile on his face. Falco laughed in surprise at the hare’s playful hit, but he didn’t comment further. 

Fox smiled to himself, enjoying the moment in front of him. On their calmest of days, there was no tenseness between his team and they could truly settle down. If even Peppy could find the time to calm his nagging down, then it truly meant that everything was safe. They didn’t have to do any checks, they only had to answer to distress calls, and the lack of them was warming.

“McCloud,” Peppy’s voice snapped Fox from his inner thoughts. His ears perked up in question, looking directly at the hare. “Get over here, son.” Fox was quick to his feet, shutting his game console and stuffing it in a pocket of his shorts as he walked forward. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Falco and Peppy return to their game, starting up another round just between the two of them.

Instead of Fox’s usual attire, his jumpsuit and jacket was forgotten in favor of a black tank top, tucked into a pair of buckled green shorts. He still had his red bandana tied around his neck, however, though his boots were absent as well and the vulpine only walked around in his metal legs.

“Is something wrong?” Fox asked as he approached the elder teammate, head quirked to the side in question. “Did we get a call? I’m sorry, I...I must not have heard it while I was distracted.” The words hurt to come out of Fox’s mouth. What kind of leader would he be if a planet was being destroyed while he was busy goofing off?

Peppy’s nose twitched in amusement. “What? No, nothin’ like that.” The hare leaned over desk, setting his mug to the side as he clicked his computer to life. 

Fox’s tail flicked, anticipating the delayed answer. “What is it?” he questioned again, searching through his head for what Peppy could possibly want. Something came to mind. “I’m sorry for being loud earlier. I’ll tell the others to watch their tone, too.”

“Fox, I didn’t call ya over to pry an apology out of ya. I don’t care,” Peppy sighed fondly, reaching over to ruffle his head between his ears, his large paw briefly touching the headpiece of his visor before it came in contact with fur. Fox leaned into the touch as a sign of appreciation for his elder teammate. “Quit your worryin’, alright? Relax some. I just wanted to show you something.”

“That’s surprising, coming from you,” Fox tilted his head, but his tone was playful.

“I’m surprising myself,” Peppy huffed, scratching his chin while his computer booted up. “There hasn’t been incident for weeks. I suppose I took the time to re-evaluate things. Think it’s time I take it easy, too.”

“‘Bout time,” the joke slipped easily off Fox’s tongue. “Though I will admit, it’s not easy to adjust without having you breathing down our necks.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll still get onto ya,” Peppy laughed. His computer’s screen turned on, presenting the start up page as it began to fully load.

“So, what did you want to show me?” Fox asked once again, unable to stay patient. The vulpine lifted himself onto the side of Peppy’s desk, taking a seat.

“Off my desk, boy,” Peppy was quick to respond, gently swatting at his arm, urging him off the surface. “I swear, you’re getting more and more like your father. I know he didn’t raise ya like this.” 

Fox didn’t move. “He disappeared when I was fourteen,” he began. The usage of the term _disappeared_ instead of _died_ did not fall short of Peppy’s ears. The son did not find it easy to admit his father was more than likely dead, though it was simple enough to say for the rest of his team. The red fox continued, “And you’ve known me since I was born. You looked after me when Dad couldn’t. I could say that technically, you co-raised me and became my primary caregiver when he disappeared.”

Peppy only rolled his eyes and shook his head, patting Fox on the back in a motion that gently, yet forcibly, moved him off the desk. He didn’t respond further to the playful remark, opening up his computer fully until he was met with his desktop. He groaned at the opened applications of various searches and games, ones that had likely been opened by Falco that the avian either forgot to close out of, or purposefully left them open. The hare resisted the urge to yell at the oldest teenager as he closed out of them himself with a grumble, fingers fumbling with the keyboard as he typed in a command prompt. Fox watched closely, narrowing his eyes when an application began running.

“Smooth sailing from here, Fox,” Peppy commented when the computer finished processing his request, running a program that showed an overview of their flights path. He pointed to a position of the map that showed where the Great Fox currently was in the galaxy. “We’re on a straight path to Corneria.”

Before Fox could ask what exactly Peppy wanted to show him, the hare continued speaking. “It wouldn’t be too daunting of a task to turn around and make a quick trip to Papetoon.”

“Papetoon?” Fox echoed, surprised.

Peppy looked at him blankly. “Your birthplanet, boy. Have those video games rotted your brain?”

“No, no, I didn’t mean that,” Fox quickly shook his head. “Just...why?” 

“When do we ever have this sort of safe, free time to roam?” Peppy offered. “When it’s mentioned, you speak so fondly of your birthplanet.” 

“I haven’t been back since you came to get me,” Fox frowned, his mannerisms suddenly nervous. “I don’t know if I’m ready.” The vulpine could still remember the way he felt when Peppy gave him the news of his father. He had been overwhelmed with emotions while also trying his best to tend to the wounded hare at the time.

Fox could see Peppy’s expression suddenly soften and the hare sighed out a sound of understanding. “The offer will still be up for a day or two, but after that we might as well head straight to Corneria. We’d be too close to the orbit.”

Fox nodded out an acknowledgement. “Alright,” he said as well, in case the hare hadn’t picked up his head movement. “Thanks, Peppy.”

“Come. Walk with me, son,” Peppy spoke as he powered off his computer, motioning with his paw for the vulpine to follow him. Before he stepped away, the hare grabbed his coffee mug. Fox was quick to follow behind Peppy as the oldest teammate led him outside of the control room, down the hallway, into the break room where the team hung out for dinner. 

On normal days, the four were in the break room at varying times for breakfast because they didn’t have a set schedule to wake up unless they had plans or there was an emergency. Peppy was the only one to eat a balanced lunch, while the other three snacked on little things like bags of chips and candy, and Falco was usually the worst of them when it came to the junk. For dinner, however, they all sat down and ate together.

“You hungry?” Peppy questioned the vulpine as they entered the room, opening the fridge to see what they had in store.

“Kind of, but it’s fine, I can fix something,” Fox shook his paws, trying to dismiss Peppy’s offer.

“I insist, Fox. Toast good with you?”

“All we have is canned bread,” Fox frowned. It wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t necessarily a fan of it. “That’s fine.”

The hare took a can of bread out of the cupboards, swiftly opening it with a can opener and letting the contents fall onto a plate. Peppy sliced the food up and popped two slices into toaster. “I know it sucks,” he hummed idly, watching the toaster. “Maybe we can stock up on some good things before we leave Corneria, whenever that is.”

“That’d be nice,” Fox sighed dreamily. He couldn’t wait to eat some better food. A thought suddenly crossed his mind. “So, uh...What’s the occasion?”

“Just wanted to talk to ya,” Peppy shrugged. “We never get the occasion, we only ever talk about business.”

Fox’s response was interrupted by the sound of the toaster as it dinged, releasing the first two slices from its hold. Peppy was quick to remove them before they burnt, placing them on a plate. This repeated until he had toasted 3 more pairs of slices; two for each of the four members.

Peppy ate his two pieces plain, but Fox watched carefully as he spread butter on the toast that he prepared for the other three, and then sprinkled some kind of substance on each slice. He handed a plate over to Fox. “Here, try this. This should be good.”

Fox took the plate, lifting a round piece of the toasted, canned bread and observing it carefully. He sniffed it once, trying to figure out what the unknown sprinkled substance was.

“Relax, it ain’t poison,” Peppy rolled his eyes. “If I was going to poison ya I wouldn’t have done it in front of you. Besides, I woulda poisoned Falco’s instead.”

Fox breathed out a sudden laugh before he finally took a bite of the food prepared for him, chewing thoughtfully. Suddenly, his eyes lit up and he looked at Peppy, unable to suppress the smile. “Cinnamon sugar?”

“Figured you would like it. You boys are always complaining about the toast in the morning, even when I eat before all of you, I’m still hearing about it all the way until dinner,” Peppy laughed. “I swear you bunch are  
more like a load of children I’m taking care of.”

Fox could hardly taste the staleness of the canned bread in comparison to the the savory taste of the melted butter and the sweetness of the cinnamon sugar. He took another bite. “Thanks, Peppy! I don’t know why I’ve never thought of this.”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” the hare responded, though it was more like a joke than anything. Regardless, Fox didn’t speak again until he swallowed.

The half eaten piece of toast in his paw, Fox tilted his head quizzically. Before he took another bite, he asked, “What did you want to talk about?”

Peppy breathed in before he began talking. “You know, I still remember the day you were born. The moment James left the hospital, I was out there scolding him for having a child so early into his twenties, knowing he had an important job to do. I hardly got to him and he was just standing there, bouncing a giggling pup in his arms.”

Fox only snorted in amusement at the image of Peppy yelling at his unfazed father. His further silence prompted the hare to continue.

“Admittedly, I thought you’d be a hindrance to the team at first,” Peppy continued, catching Fox’s attention. “I wasn’t fond of your father whenever he’d bring you around. I was afraid you’d get in the way of his job.”

Fox caught the apology that almost slipped his mouth on instinct, realizing he didn’t have anything to be sorry for. He couldn’t control his father’s actions.

“I stopped thinking that way whenever I started doing your pop some favors and watching over you. It felt like you became one of my own. I’ll tell ya somethin’, though, boy. You were one hell of a pup to raise.”

Fox laughed aloud. “What do you mean?”

“It was all fine until we put you in general schooling on Corneria. There you met Slippy, it didn’t get bad there. Ya picked up his mannerisms and got more talkative and expressive, that was fine. But bless, then you met Falco. That boy was one hell of an influence on ya. His attitude infected you the first day you two met.” 

Fox couldn’t help it when more laughter escaped him. He lifted himself up onto one of the countertops, getting comfortable as he listened on intently to Peppy’s story. He’d never really heard much of his childhood from the point of view of someone else. 

Peppy sighed fondly. “I remember talking to your father about that little bird boy. Told ol’ James that Lombardi fella was gon’ mess with your head, but he wouldn’t listen. That same night, you talked back to me for the first time and the son of a gun wouldn’t stop laughing.” 

“What’d you do?” Fox asked curiously in between laughter. 

“What could I do? I put ya in timeout, and stopped trying when that didn’t work. I was ‘bout to have a word with Falco myself but then ya grew out of it.”

When Fox’s amused laughter died down, he wiped his nose with his arm, sniffling. “So, what’s this talk about?” he asked, then added with a joke, “You want me to start calling you Dad or something?”

“Can’t I just have a casual conversation with ya, Fox?” Peppy rolled his eyes playfully. “I ain’t done, anyways. Maybe I should have never stopped giving ya the timeouts if you’re gonna get an attitude with me.” There was a teasing gleam in his eyes when he spoke.

Fox raised his paws in mock surrender. “Anything but that!” he laughed. “Alright, alright, I’m sorry. Do continue.”

“Everything was fine until you finished your general schooling when ya turned fourteen. From that point, ya had the choice to move on to piloting school, but you didn’t.” Peppy shook his head. “Didn’t want to. As long as your dad was around, you saw no need for it.”

Fox went silent, understanding the direction this conversation was taking. Peppy seemed to pick up on the change in mood from his teammate and he added, “I can drop it here if ya want, son. We’ve never really spoken about it before.”

It was true. Fox never spoke much about the disappearance of his father, not even to Falco or Slippy. In fact, he hardly ever even thought about it to himself. “No, it’s...It’s fine. Go on.”

Peppy nodded, giving the young canine one long look. “Just let me know, alright?” he said before he continued. “You were sad when you learned you’d be going back to Papetoon to live while your father was on duty. Things were getting busy around then. I grew fond of you, and as much as I missed having ya around, we didn’t have the room for you. Things got...dangerous, and then...”

Peppy stopped short with a sigh, and Fox quickly butt in. “You know, Peppy, you don’t have to talk about it either if it’s hard.”

“No, no, it’s about time we had this talk, don’tcha think?”

“Yeah, but,” Fox had to admit this conversation was long overdue, but he didn’t want to force his teammate into it. “I’m fine with it, but only if you are too. There’s always other days.”

Peppy only nodded. He backed up in the timeline of events for a moment. “Every day you’d try to reach us, asking to be on the airship with us. We never had the heart to tell ya how the heat started picking up and we were always fighting for our lives and others.”

“I knew something was wrong,” Fox commented gravely. “I just could never tell what.”

Peppy nodded regretfully. “I shoulda told you, Fox. Maybe you’d have gotten to spend more time with James before he—“

“No, no, don’t blame yourself,” Fox interrupted him urgently. “It’s...It’s not your fault, Peppy. You could have never guessed what would happen.”

Peppy only nodded, with a sigh. “I never did know what would happen. I could have never guessed that one of our own...yeah. To say the least, Fox, he vanished right under my own grip.” 

Fox nodded with a grave understanding. “It’s not your fault,” he repeated.

Peppy chuckled sadly. “I almost lost my own life myself. At some point, I could have accepted a fate like that, because where was Star Fox without ol’ James McCloud? But deep inside, something in my brain stopped me, knowing you were still out there waiting for your old man to come back. Given it was only me, I couldn’t leave ya behind like that when ya had already lost so much and didn’t even know it yet.”

Fox looked up at Peppy in surprise, shocked to hear these words come from him. He’d never really thought of it that way, but the hare didn’t dwell on it long enough for him to ask questions.

“I remember that following day I flew back to Papetoon as fast as I coulda managed. I didn’t think I’d make it, hell, I thought my time would run out in my own arwing. I made it there, though.”

Fox only nodded along. He, too, remembered that day from the moment the hare had entered his house.

“It wasn’t hard to find ya. Cooped up in your room with only video games to busy your mind, I stumbled into your house like a drunk.” Peppy laughed out of forced amusement at the bitter memory. “I could barely stand upright when I told you what happened. Fox, it hurt me to see you cry, but I didn’t realize until moments later you weren’t crying for your pop, you were crying over me.”

“You scared me,” Fox admitted with a sad laugh. “I was broken over Dad, yeah, but I didn’t want to lose someone else right in front of me.”

“I’d never seen a boy regress so far back into his life in one short moment. The fourteen year old in front of me at the time looked closer to a scared toddler—a pup lost from its family.” Peppy sighed, but quickly clarified, “I don’t mean that as an insult, Fox. It only hurt me to see you hurt worse.”

With Fox’s silence, it prompted Peppy to continue. “Ya begged me to take you with me back to Corneria, and I never told ya, but I had already planned on it. I wasn’t going to leave you behind ever again, not after I almost already had. I remember that night in the arwing, we didn’t speak. You’d try to muffle and hide your sobs from me, and I remember I turned off all transmissions just to reach any satellite in the galaxy I could, just to play some music for ya.”

Fox nodded, remembering the night almost like it was yesterday. The music had been a big help in calming his nerves, and it had even gotten to the point where the pup had fallen asleep on the floor of the cockpit. 

Peppy spoke softly, “I didn’t care that ya cried, Fox. I never did.” 

“I wanted to seem strong,” Fox admitted. “I knew at that moment, Dad’s legacy was left with me. I knew leaders didn’t cry.”

“You were only fourteen,” Peppy sighed. “I just wanted to go home at that point, but you wouldn’t let me until I went to the hospital. I suppose your stubbornness was a good thing, only the stars know that I needed that pushiness at that moment. I had passed out before we even reached the front desk.”

A brief laugh left Fox’s mouth. Although filled with sadness, he still held a fond view on their past history. “I never told you that I accidentally referred to you as my dad,” Fox stated with a small smile. “To the nurse, I mean. I still remember the weird look she gave me.”

Peppy looked at Fox with raised brows. “That’s news to me.”

“You were always close to me, just as close as Dad was,” Fox shrugged, his skin suddenly heating up underneath his fur with embarrassment. “I just always viewed you like that.”

“I’m not making fun of ya, son,” Peppy explained with a dismissal wave of his paw. “Just surprised.”

Fox only nodded sheepishly, moving his head to avoid Peppy’s curious expression.

“Anyways,” Peppy shook his head, continuing. “Did I ever tell ya how happy I was to wake up in that hospital bed and see you still stuck to my side?”

Fox only shook his head, his ears flicking with curiosity as he silently urged the hare to continue.

“You had pulled up a chair by the bed, and at some point you had fallen asleep. I woke up to see your arms crossed on the side of the bed, your head buried there. I was gonna make a joke, ask if I could truly ever get rid of ya, but I couldn’t stay conscious long enough to even shake ya awake.”

Fox laughed softly, thinking back on that day. A sudden memory came to his head, so the vulpine decided to contribute. “We were there for about two to three days, I don’t remember. I remember the second you got discharged, we were walking out the doors when you learned I hadn’t eaten that whole time we were there. You were so mad at me!” The red fox laughed more, satisfied with the light turn their conversation had taken. “You dragged me to the nearest restaurant you found and wouldn’t let me leave until I finished my whole plate. I didn’t even really like the food.”

Peppy snorted, shaking his head. “Hell, it wasn’t that hard to eat there. There was a free cafeteria, and I know damn well the nurses brought ya plenty of food too. Your dad was a hero, they all knew what happened. They weren’t gonna starve ya—but you did that yourself.”

Fox smiled fondly. “I was worried about you, Peppy, can you blame me?”

Peppy chuckled, “No, son, I can’t. If the roles were reversed, I’d probably have gone as far as to yell at a nurse if they even so much as entered the room without having actual business to do. I suppose I can’t blame ya.”

Fox laughed fondly. “I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“After that day, you’ve never left me. You became like a thorn in my side.”

“You don’t care.”

Peppy smiled. “I don’t.” 

Fox returned his smile, though it didn’t last when the hare went on. “Ya know, Fox, I never apologized for what happened.”

“Peppy, I...What happened to Dad, that wasn’t your fault at all.”

“Not about that,” Peppy quickly clarified. “I am deeply sorry for that, but it’s something else. Fox, I pushed you to join the academy to lead Star Fox. At that point, your childhood was taken away from you. No fourteen year old should have that responsibility. Even for an eighteen year old, it’s a large weight.”

“Peppy...” Fox was at a loss of words. He remembered the day he begrudgingly agreed to revive Star Fox. 

Admittedly, after his father’s disappearance, the vulpine had become unruly. He had an attitude and didn’t want to do anything. He’d barely passed his academy classes. Fox could still remember the nights he’d come home to Peppy’s house after classes and they’d get in arguments over his grades, attitude, and behavior, before the vulpine would eventually storm up to the bedroom that Peppy had willingly created for him. Some nights, he wouldn’t even go back home and would show up days later and that only left room for even more fights.

He didn’t grow out of it until much later.

Peppy seemed to be on the same page in Fox’s thoughts when he noticed the vulpine’s regretful and embarrassed expression. “I promise you, you’ve become a respectful young man now, but Fox, you are still a boy.” The hare sighed thoughtfully. “You’ve made some mistakes, but I’ve made the most taxing one by putting this weight on you. I should have continued Star Fox, I shouldn’t have placed that on ya, son.”

“I’m sorry for the way I acted back then, Peppy,” Fox addressed his previous concerns. “I didn’t want to think that you were in just as much pain as I was. I shouldn’t have been so...mean to you.”

Peppy brushed it off with a small laugh. “It’s fine, Fox. I understand.” To make the air lighter, he joked, “To tell ya the truth, your attitude was driving me towards retirement. Sometimes I wish ya had pushed just a bit further before you straightened up your act.”

Fox snorted and smiled in response, though the smile was weak. “Thanks, Peppy. For everything. I’ve never shown my appreciation for you.”

“Don’t have to,” Peppy shook his head. “What you’ve created out of Star Fox...that’s enough for me.”

Fox felt like he should still show more, but he didn’t bother debating it, so he gave him a smile. “Let me make dinner tonight,” Fox offered. “I’ll let you have a little break. Maybe I can whip up something good with whatever scraps we have. You won’t have to hear Falco complain about whatever it is because it’ll all be on me.”

“Good luck,” Peppy laughed genuinely. “Hopefully this’ll be the last night we even have to scramble for something good.”

At the mention of food, Fox noticed Peppy had finished his breakfast, but the vulpine had hardly even touched his further than when he had stopped earlier. Almost as if on cue, his stomach growled, and he began to eat again at a quickened pace so he could return to the control room.

“Slow down, son, you’ll give yourself a stomachache,” Peppy commented. “Your video games ain’t going nowhere.”

“Not what I had in mind,” Fox playfully rolled his eyes.

“And what did I tell you about talking with your mouth full? Have some sense, boy. Someone’s gotta clean these crumbs you’re spewing everywhere.”

Fox laughed genuinely at the hare’s teasing remarks, though he knew he meant it. He swallowed down the last bit of his food and hopped off the counter, disposing of the plate. “Thanks for the breakfast, Peppy,” he said sincerely. “Thanks for the talk, too. I guess I never realized how much I needed it.”

Before Peppy could respond, Fox hugged the hare, the top of his head nuzzled underneath Peppy’s chin, which was as far as he could reach. The larger animal stood still out of surprise before he accepted the embrace, patting the boy on the back.

Fox grabbed Falco’s and Slippy’s plates before they exited the room, walking the hallways at a peaceful, slow pace.

“Ya know,” Peppy broke the silence, “your father would be proud of you, son. If he could see you, he’d be proud of where you are now. Hell, even when you were under my care and sneaking off every other night and arguing with me when you were actually around, the old man would still be proud.”

“Thanks, Peppy. It means a lot to hear that.”

“‘Course. I may have been shocked with your father for running off and having a child, but in the end, I’m glad he made the choice, however stupid it was.” 

Fox smiled up at him, showing his toothy grin. “You saying you like having me around?”

“You wish,” Peppy snorted, but his real answer was revealed in the way he ruffled the top of the fox’s head, nearly knocking off his visor. “Just don’t be like your father, going off and giving me more pups to take care of. I’m not ready for grandchildren.”

Fox couldn’t control the laugh that escaped his mouth, as much as he’d like to of helped it.

“I’ll be watching you closely, boy. Any girlfriend you have, I’ll have to meet her first.”

They were all only jokes, but something shorted in Fox’s brain when he didn’t respond further. Peppy smirked in acknowledgement, egging it on further. “Don’t tell me there’s already someone, Fox.”

“No! Not like that,” Fox blushed, shaking his head urgently. “Uh, not in a way that you think. There’s nobody.”

Luckily to him, Peppy didn’t push it further as they reached the control room and the satisfied hare returned to his desk, cup of coffee in his paws as he sipped it then set it down, once again to likely be forgotten.

Somehow, the room had ended up being even more messy than when they last left it, with toys and equipment thrown everywhere. He assumed at some point, Falco and Slippy must have wrestled in between rounds of their video game. The two were nestled together now, furiously clicking on their systems as they fought in their current round, getting more competitive with each win and loss. 

The mess was the least of Fox’s concerns right now, as Peppy immediately hopped to it with a shout at the two boys for them to clean it up, followed by a protest from Falco that they’d do it in a minute. Fondly, Fox shook his head. He couldn’t ask for a better team.

Addressing Peppy’s last question, if Fox had to be honest with himself, there _was_ someone, just not in the way that Peppy thought. He was too embarrassed to tell the hare about it, so the on and off feelings had never left the vulpine’s brain, and even then, he had a hard time accepting it himself. Girls were okay, he liked them, but he had more of a preference towards guys. He could imagine himself dating both, but...He already had his eyes on someone.

Shaking himself from his thoughts, he walked over to the two other teenagers with their plates in hand.

“Hi, Fox!” Slippy addressed him without looking up from his screen. “We’ll be done with this round in a minute. You can hop in the next one.”

“That’s okay, I’m done playing for now,” Fox shook his head. “I got you both some breakfast.”

“If it’s more of that canned bread shit, I don’t want it,” Falco spoke up, his tone playful. “Now that we’re getting close to Corneria, I can already _taste_ the real food!”

Fox sat down beside Falco on his knees. “No, it’s something different this time! Well, canned bread, yes, but...Just try it, trust me. You know how much I don’t like the bread too.” Setting Slippy’s plate down on the ground, he slid it over towards the frog, but kept Falco’s in his paws still.

Fox waited patiently, idly taking a small bite out of Falco’s food, though he didn’t take any more as much as he wanted to. The breakfast was good, but he only wanted to take a single bite just to mess with the avian.

The canine’s ears perked up when the sound of the game over screen came up, and by the sound of Falco’s frustrated grunt, he already knew who won.

Shutting his system, Falco discarded the console and laid it on the floor, flipping over onto his back from where he was lying on his stomach and peering up at Fox with narrowed eyes. “What do you got for me?”

Fox took a slice of the toast that he had already bitten off of. “I know it’s the canned bread, but like I said, trust me.”

Falco’s arm immediately shot up to deflect Fox’s advances as he held the toast close to his beak. “Shit, it must have been good because you already ate some of mine, you jerk! Gross!” 

Despite his tone, Fox knew the bird was only playfully being stubborn. “Falco, we used to share food all the time. Hell, you’d even eat off my plate without asking me first.”

Fox could hear the crunch from Slippy as the frog took his first bite. “It is good!” he remarked with a happy croak. “Try it, Falco!”

“Fine, but I want the piece that isn’t infected with rabies,” Falco sat up on his elbows, bringing a hand out when Fox rolled his eyes and grabbed the other piece of food. The bird inspected it for a minute before taking a bite, his beak piercing the toast. He chewed thoughtfully for a moment, and when he didn’t speak further, Fox knew that he had won.

“Good, isn’t it?” Fox grinned smugly, setting the plate down for Falco to make the decision on whether or not he wanted to eat the other piece. Knowing him, he probably would end up eating it.

“Whatever,” Falco mumbled between chews, but Fox could see the vague hint of satisfaction in his expression. Fox smiled warmly to himself, enjoying ruffling the feathers of the hotheaded bird with teasing remarks. 

“If you boys are done over there,” Peppy’s voice came after awhile. “I asked for this mess to be cleaned up.”

Slippy was the first to get to his feet, hopping over to where a majority of shared belongings were scattered across the floor. 

Fox got up last, offering a paw to the bird who was still laid out on the floor on his back. Falco took the offer and lifted himself up, glaring at the vulpine when he playfully acted like he was about to be pulled down when Falco stood up. 

“So, I’m making dinner tonight,” Fox told him before they went off to join Slippy, looking up at the avian expectantly. “Anything specific you want?”

“Does it matter? I know you’re not making it just for me.”

“Well, you complain the most, so...”

Falco rolled his eyes, gently shoving his shoulder into Fox’s. “Yeah, I’ll think about it,” he responded, though it was more of a teasing remark than an actual promise.

Fox watched as the avian slipped away to help Slippy, albeit begrudgingly. When he walked, their shoulders brushed up against each other briefly. The feeling of soft feathers against his fur made him feel warm inside, and at that moment, the red fox found himself thinking back on his previous conversation with Peppy. The moment did not last when the sound of Peppy’s voice quickly rung out the thoughts from his head and Fox was quick to help the other two.

As he worked, however, he still could not help but think back at the shared moment between the two. After the conversation with Peppy, it had brought forth thoughts that the fox tended to not dwell on.

Maybe it was about time to make a change for once and do something about it.


	2. Chapter 2

By the time dinner time rolled around, Fox still didn’t have a clue on what to make. His offer to Peppy was still standing, and he would feel bad to suddenly retract on it at the very last minute. He never tended to make dinner for everyone, though, so he couldn’t even begin to figure out what he could fix.

He wondered to himself if asking Peppy for suggestions would bother the hare. Or, possibly even asking if he could guide the vulpine along in making it. After their talk earlier in the day, he knew that, likely, Peppy wouldn’t mind. If the hare saw him like a son, it’d be an excellent non-business related bonding experience.

Fox let his eyes wander the control room. Falco had picked back up on playing video games after cleaning up, and Slippy did for a while as well, but now he was messing around with building blocks that they kept around the ship. When they first got them, Fox wanted to question why they had babyish toys lying around, but after he saw Slippy use them to create ideas for the outline of an invention, he didn’t bother the frog.

Gazing around the room further, his eyes landed on Peppy. The hare was on the couch with a book in his large paws, the fake palm tree decor by the couch providing a nice, shady overhang from the blaring lights of the ship. Peppy seemed to sense Fox looking over at him because immediately he put his book down and met Fox’s eyes, beckoning him over.

“It’s not polite to stare, Fox,” Peppy joked as the vulpine stalked over. “You never seen me read a book before?”

“Oh, it wasn’t that, sorry,” Fox quickly clarified, awkwardly stumbling over his own words for a second. “I was just thinking about what to make for dinner.”

Peppy checked his wristwatch. “Well hell, Fox, I woulda thought you’d already fixed it by now.”

“Yeah...I got a little distracted. I don’t know what to make. Earlier, I asked Falco if he had any ideas, but he brushed me off and said he’d think about it. He’s been playing games since.”

Peppy rolled his eyes fondly. “Don’t listen to a word that boy says. The day he holds a promise is the day we start flyin’ without our Arwings.”

Fox chuckled lightly. “Yeah. I guess so.”

Standing up from the couch, Peppy patted Fox on the back. “C’mon. I’ll help ya whip somethin’ up.”

Fox let out a sigh of relief as he followed the hare, and for the second time that day they were back in the break room. Immediately, the two began rummaging the cabinets.

“You know, Fox,” Peppy began, “we only have to worry about this for two more nights. Tonight, and tomorrow night. We’ll be in Corneria by the next morning.”

“Already? That’s great news!”

Peppy laughed softly. “Things have been so calm, even our estimation systems have stumbled a little. I thought it’d be a few days from now, but without any trouble, we’ll be there before ya know it.”

“Just hope there’s no trouble before then,” Fox responded idly, his attention focused on a can in a cabinet he just opened. Grabbing it, he inspected it, crinkling his nose. “I found some canned meat. Err....Imitation meat?”

“No good,” Peppy frowned. “I’d rather not hear Falco complain tonight.”

Fox hummed, putting the can back and closing the cabinet. There was nothing left to inspect in that one. Opening another one, he found boxes of cereal.

“Hey! I forgot about these,” Fox cheered, grabbing a box. The ones the three boys picked out were kiddie flavors, bright colors with marshmallows. Peppy only ate the bland ones. Fox didn’t know how he could, because to him they always tasted like cardboard. “We got any milk?”

Milk was one of the things they tended to stock up on a lot every time they made stops. Sometimes, they’d even get lactose-free milk so it’d last longer. Fox never really noticed the difference.

“Looks like we do,” Peppy informed him as he opened the fridge. “In date, too. That what you want?”

“Would you mind?” Fox asked, tilting his head.

“I don’t care what we eat tonight. Hell, I wouldn’t care if we didn’t eat at all. My mind’s too focused on getting off this ship.”

Fox smiled fondly. “Yeah, I understand. Cereal it is then!” He reached up in the cabinet and grabbed one of Peppy’s boxes, setting both of them on the dining table. As he did that, he heard a transmission cut in on the ear pieces of his visor as Peppy clicked his on to call the other two from the control room for dinner. As soon as he was done, the static disappeared and was replaced with silence.

It didn’t take long for Falco and Slippy to enter the room, walking in casually as the doors slid closed behind them.

Fox smiled at the two of them. “We decided to just eat cereal tonight,” he informed them.

“Oh, nice! I think it’s best at night, personally,” Slippy smiled, grabbing a bowl from the counter and bringing it over to the dining table. Peppy set down the milk for the smallest teammate to use. “I’m starving!”

Fox laughed gently at him, smiling inwardly when he noticed Falco didn’t have anything to say. Silently, he hoped he had pleased the avian. After all, nothing could go wrong with cereal.

When all four of them had their bowls fixed, they sat down at the table. Fox wasted no time in digging in, filling his mouth with the sugary food and chewing quickly.

“You in a rush, Fox?” Peppy took note of his pace. 

Fox swallowed and shook his head. “Just hungry.”

“I don’t understand how you boys don’t got cavities with how much you three eat these sweets.” Peppy joked, laughing to himself quietly. “Sooner or later we’re gonna need a dentist on board.”

“Go ahead, I’ll get them to remove those buck teeth of yours,” came Falco’s voice, breaking his silence with a satisfied, teasing smirk. Peppy huffed in response and rolled his eyes, not wanting to go into a playful snark contest with the bird. Even if he did, it wouldn’t have mattered because Falco’s face dropped to a more neutral gaze and he fell silent once again, looking at the bowl in front of him.

Fox looked at Falco with a soft laugh, watching as the bird idly picked at his food with a disconnected expression on his face, before finally picking his spoon up and eating. A frown replaced Fox’s fond smile, tilting his head slightly to the left as he looked at the bird beside him.

Something was starting to seem off, but he couldn’t tell what. Falco didn’t pay any attention to Fox’s stares.

Finally, Fox shrugged, brushing it off as the avian being tired. He couldn’t imagine how much Falco’s eyes were likely sore after staring at a little screen all day since he woke up. It may have even put him in a bit of a grumpy mood.

“Peppy told me that we should be getting to Corneria by the morning after tomorrow,” Fox spoke to break the silence after leaving behind his thoughts, his eyes occasionally darting to look at Falco’s to read any kind of emotion he had.

The bird looked up and over at him for a brief moment, a vaguely quizzical expression on his face before it was replaced by a neutral, unreadable one. Fox could tell the bird had a question on his mind, but whatever thoughts were running in the bird’s head never left.

The vulpine was starting to get a little frustrated with the bird. Instead of his silence being due to exhaustion, it seemed more like Falco was giving him the cold shoulder.

Why? Did Fox do something to hurt him? He had seemed fine this morning. They’d even played together a bit.

“Yes, that is correct,” Peppy cleared his throat. “That’s only considerin’, ‘course, that it all goes according to plan.”

“What do you think, Slippy?” Fox asked the frog, looking over at him. He made it indirectly obvious to Falco that he was starting to notice the behavioral shift.

“That sounds great!” Slippy responded with a smile. “I’ve been waiting to land for so long. I’m glad it won’t be that much longer.”

Fox’s whiskers twitched as he smiled. “You still got that map, don’t you? We need to look at it together and decide things to do while we stay.”

“It’s in my room! Oh, oh, can we plan tomorrow, Fox?” Slippy could hardly hold still in his seat. “I already have so many ideas!”

“Already way ahead of you, I’ve been thinking it out in my head.”

“Now don’t forget, boys,” Peppy began, setting his spoon down in his bowl to signify that he was finished eating. “Even with how relaxed things are, we could still get called on a duty at any moment. Doesn’t mean you can’t relax, just stay alert. Always have your communicators with you.”

Fox nodded along to Peppy’s wisdom, finishing his own bowl. He wiped his muzzle of stray droplets of milk that caught onto his whiskers, hanging loosely and threatening to spill. 

Falco gave no contribution to the conversation as he finished eating, not touching the remaining bit of milk left in the bowl. Fox wanted to ask what was on the bird’s mind, but he didn’t want to put him in a spotlight with the other two around. Silently, he hoped they could catch a private moment together.

Slightly urgent, Fox looked over at Peppy. “It’s close to the time you go to bed, isn’t it?” Fox asked the hare, one ear twitching. “Feels weird. We ate dinner a bit late.”

Peppy checked his watch and hummed, “Suppose it is. We’re not on Corneria yet; no sense in breaking my schedule now.” The hare stood from his seat and took the three’s bowls, setting them in the sink and filling them with water. “Will one of ya be a dove and do the dishes before bed? I’d do it myself, but I’m not stupid and know you boys stay up well past what I do.”

“I’ll do them,” Fox offered with a smile. “I’ll get Falco to help me, too. He’s never done em before.”

Peppy glanced at the vulpine with a grateful expression before he called it a night, wishing the three peaceful slumber as he left the room, retreating to his quarters.

“You need any help, Fox?” Slippy asked the canine in question, looking at him as he stood up.

“Me and Falco got it. You going to sleep too?”

“Just to my room. I might look at the map of Corneria for a bit. I gotta catch up with you!”

“You do that,” Fox chuckled, happy to see the frog so cheerful. “Night, Slip.”

Before too long, it was just Fox and Falco in the room. The vulpine didn’t say anything as he patted Falco on the back from where the bird was still sitting before turning and walking over to the sink. Fox could hear a brief sigh from the bird as he rose from the chair.

“You going to bed after this?” Fox asked Falco, not yet addressing his change in mood. When the avian didn’t answer immediately, he went on. “I don’t know about me yet. We can play some video games together before we sleep, if you want to?”

“Nah, I’m probably just going to sleep,” Falco replied simply. Fox couldn’t control his bodily expression as his tail drooped between his legs.

Without responding right away, the vulpine is took one of the bowls and dumped the water that Peppy had filled inside it. Then, he began soaping it up and filled it with water again, scrubbing along the sides with a sponge. Once he was done, he handed it to Falco to dry off. The bird did his job, letting a few mumbles slip out at the feeling of his feathers getting wet. Fox could feel the droplets gently hit his cheek when the blue falcon shook his fingers irritably. Fox wanted to make a joke, but didn’t bother, knowing it would fall short with the avian’s current mood.

“I was thinking,” Fox began again when he had picked up the second bowl. “We should hang out together when we get to Corneria. We never get the chance to, just you and me.”

“Any particular reason?” Fox could swear he heard a slight bit of interest in the bird’s voice when he questioned him. The vulpine handed off the second bowl to Falco for him to dry it.

“Well, you’re one of my best friends, man,” Fox smiled to himself, a toothy grin of sharp teeth plastered across his muzzle. “I think it’d be nice. We hadn’t really hung out since we were in school.”

Falco only hummed in response, quickly drying off the second bowl and setting it aside as Fox worked on the third.

“You know, we used to hang out all the time,” Fox sighed contently at the memories that flooded his brain. “You used to get me in trouble all the time.”

Fox could have sworn that the words fell flat and the bird had stopped listening, but his thoughts were knocked aside when he heard the bird snort and he smiled, satisfied with the response. 

Maybe the bird truly was just tired. There still wouldn’t be any harm in asking, though.

“Falco, I don’t mean to pry, but are you okay?” Fox looked up at him in the bird’s green eyes as he handed over the third undried bowl. The vulpine winced slightly at his own bluntness, quickly adding on, “It’s just—You’ve been mostly silent all night, and acting completely different compared to this morning...I’m just wondering, I’m sorry.”

Fox regretted it when he noticed the bird slightly tense up. He hesitated a brief moment before taking the bowl from him, drying it off. “I’m fine,” he replied coolly, and Fox almost thought he sounded a bit cocky too. 

Fox’s tail flicked. They both knew it was a lie, but the bird wouldn’t budge. He didn’t meet the canine’s eyes again as he set aside the bowl, staring down at the countertop.

“It’s okay if there’s something wrong, Falco,” Fox tried again, leaning over slightly to meet his gaze, but it didn’t work. Sighing, he grabbed the last bowl and began washing it. “You can talk to me.”

“It’s nothing, Fox.”

“Are you anxious about landing in Corneria? I know it’s been a bit since we’ve had this time off...”

“Fox—“

“And with everything so calm, well, I guess it can be a little weird. So if you—“

“Shit- stop!” Falco interrupted him and Fox’s ears flattened against his head, regretting the way his fur bristled when he flinched. The canine noticed the way the bird took note of his reaction and saw a brief moment of regret, but it was easily replaced with a look of irritation as Falco’s feathers ruffled themselves in return. “Read the room, McCloud. I don’t want to talk about it.”

Fox didn’t step down immediately, not exactly taking the hint. “So there is something wrong?”

His whiskers twitched when Falco groaned, the feathers on his cheeks bristling and fluffing out. “I just said I didn’t want to talk about it, you nosy dog. Hurry up and give me the last bowl or you can dry it yourself.”

His tone was irritated and slightly angry, and Fox couldn’t deny the fact that the words stung a little when Falco snapped at him. Against his own will, his muzzle snapped closed and he quickly dumped the water out of the remaining dish and handed it over to the bird, awkwardly looking down to avoid his gaze. 

There was definitely something bothering Falco, but what could it be? Now, the fox knew better than to pry, but he wanted to know. He cared about the bird, maybe more than he truly liked to admit.

When Falco finished drying the bowl, he stacked them with the rest, shaking the remaining bits of water from his feathers. “I’m going to bed,” he told the other, and Fox could only assume it was just for the sake of not leaving the room wordlessly, judging by the plain and firm tone in his voice.

Fox allowed his body to express itself to its full capabilities as the falcon left the room, his tail drooping fully between his legs and his ears pinned back against his head. With a sigh, he waited a bit before leaving the room himself and sadly retreating to his own quarters, finding it hard to walk along with his tail so far between his legs. 

When he made it to his room, the fox was quick to climb into bed, slipping his visor off and setting it aside on his nightstand. He looked up at the ceiling with a regretful sigh, thinking back on their past interactions of the day.

Fox couldn’t recall anything he’d done that could have pissed Falco off. Finding himself growing frustrated with Falco’s uncalled for attitude, he clenched his eyes shut, forcing himself to get some needed rest. It became less forceful as he began to grow sleepy, feeling his body relax until he fully slipped into a peaceful state, letting his dreams take over his mind rather than his worries.

—

Fox found himself in the old Cornerian apartment, owned by his father. Looking down at himself, he realized how much smaller he was than usual, and it was then that he figured he must be dreaming. He took a moment to wander around his room, indulging in what his brain could recollect from his memories. 

As he was looking through his stuff, he found his communicator. Without questioning it, he grabbed it, inspecting it before storing it away. He wanted to explore more of what his dream had to offer now.

The apartment was just like the way he remembered it from his childhood, but he was the only one present. In reality, Peppy tended to be babysitting him when his father went off on missions. When his father was on his off time, however, both of them would be over, hanging out together as well as giving Fox attention and taking him out places. Fox thought back fondly on the memories of the times his dad and Peppy would take him out shopping, or take him to fun places, like the theater or bowling alley.

Silently, Fox began to wonder where this dream would take him. Could he talk to his father? He knew it wasn’t his real father, it was just his mind’s projection, but he still just wanted a chance to speak to the collected imagination of what he could remember.

Fox put himself out on a task to find him, leaving the apartment and roaming the neighborhood. It was strangely empty—he could even say it was a borderline ghost town. 

“Dad?” Fox called out. The only response he received was wind blowing against his fur and battering it around until it was flat. It was so strong, the sound of it in his ears almost seemed to deafen him.

“Dad?” his voice came again, the wind growing stronger as he walked further. The more he went on, the more dark and twisted his old neighborhood seemed to get. He could barely keep walking before he hit the edge of the neighborhood and entered a forest. Spotting an open cave, the little vulpine raced inside to get away from the wind that had begun to nearly topple him over.

He breathed out a sigh of relief as he entered the cave, but the fox jolted when he heard his communicator suddenly sound out a long wave of static, as if something was trying to reach him. He took it out and clicked every available button he could, trying to get a connection, but the eerie sound only continued to echo through the cave and only seemed to get worse the further he ventured inside.

Off in the distance, Fox could see a small, orange light at the end of the cave, appearing like a dot in his vision. Hoping for a sign of life, the pup picked up his pace and walked on, ignoring how the static on his communicator grew louder and stronger. 

When Fox entered the lit part of the cave, he looked around for a source of the light but could find nothing- the section of the cave was just strangely lit without anything causing it. His green eyes darted around the room before landing on a strange shape off in the corner. As soon as his eyes made contact with the figure, the static began to blare and there was a pixelated screeching sound, similar to how a device will let out noises of high frequencies if it came too close into contact with the waves of a separate device.

With a yelp, Fox cried out as he threw the device, hearing it snap and shatter yet it still gave off the blaring sounds, painfully filling his ears. Trying his best to ignore it, tears stinging at the corners of his eyes from the overload of sensory, he ran over to the strange figure in the corner, wanting to beg whoever it was to make it stop.

Fox fell to his knees and grasped the side of the stranger, moving them so they were laying on their back from the awkward position, stretched out on their side.

Fox opened his mouth to plead with them, his words falling short when he realized who he’d just locked eyes with.

No. Not like this.

“Dad?” Fox couldn’t help the cry that escaped him at the sight of his injured father, and it was at that moment when James looked at him that the communicator’s noise ceased, as if the device had never been there to begin with.

“Dad, are you with me?” Fox tried again, not being able to control the tears that slipped out. His father’s eyes traveled up and down his son, as if he were trying to register what was in front of him.

“Fuck, I didn’t want this,” the younger vulpine cursed to himself, his voice weepy. “Why did it turn out like this? I want out of this, now!”

Despite his loud and angry pleas, his mind refused to wake up.

“I didn’t want to see this,” Fox broke down, his voice barely above a whisper. “Dad, I’m sorry. I didn’t know that-“

James weakly shuffled in Fox’s small arms, twitching in the grasp his son had on him. Fox rested his forehead on the older vulpine’s chest, listening intently to the pattern of labored breath.

“Fox,” the McCloud father finally spoke, his voice sounding strained. Fox lifted his head, meeting his dad’s eyes again. He could still see a bit of life shining in the green of his eyes, his signature sunglasses cracked and thrown to the side.

“Dad, I’m here now,” Fox promised, his mind so far gone that he had forgotten this was a dream. He tried his best to silence the struggling words of his father, unsure if he’d be able to mentally handle it. “Please, don’t speak. You won’t have to be alone again.”

James lifted a weak paw, grabbing ahold of one of Fox’s own. The pup’s smaller paw was completely enclosed by his dad’s much larger one. He looked sadly into the eyes of James as his paw was squeezed, watching as the flame lit in his eyes began to die.

“Fox, I never got to tell you how much you’ve made me proud,” James ignored his requests, and Fox could tell how he was resisting a pained cough. “How much you still make me proud, with what you’ve created of Star Fox.”

“No,” Fox shook his head, not wanting to hear it. He didn’t feel like he could ever live up to be within the same light of his father. His mind was too wrapped up in the situation to realize this was only his mind’s projection of his dad. “No, no...please don’t say that.”

“I knew my death would come soon. And I knew you would succeed in my place,” James sputtered out weakly. “And you have, Fox.”

“Stop it, please,” Fox begged between sobs. “Stop it! You’re not dead. You disappeared, you’re not dead! I can still find you, Dad, I’ll find you. I promise, please believe me. I want you back- I can’t do it anymore without you!”

As Fox sobbed, hiccuping over his own words, James smiled at him and brushed a paw over his son’s cheek. Desperately, Fox nuzzled into the touch, pressing his face against his father’s palm like his life depended on it.

“You were meant to do this, Fox,” came James’s voice again, nearly drowned out by his son’s cries. 

“No I wasn’t—“ Fox cried out, sniffling. “Please come back, Dad, I miss you. You can escape this, you have to come back.”

Fox was growing frustrated, his tears growing hot against his face when it seemed like his words were barely even registering with his dad. He grit his teeth and muffled a sob of starved emotions when he felt his father wipe a thumb over his closed eyes, wiping away the tears that spilled over so easily.

“You’ll do well, Fox, I promise,” James whispered to him. “I just wish I could be here to see it. No matter what, I’ll be with you. I always have.”

Fox could tell that his father was starting to slip away as his voice grew weaker. Fox let out a shrill sound, almost like a frustrated cry. “No!” his voice came, tone horrified and scared. There was a mixture of anger there as well when he let out his feelings. “Stop it! Please, you can’t leave. You can’t abandon me again, please! You can’t leave behind your only child!” 

Fox realized how much his words sounded like he was blaming his father for what happened, but before he could desperately apologize, the older fox gave him one last look full of love before the life in his eyes died out, leaving an injured body in its place that began to grow cold. Fox clutched onto it, seeking as much as his father’s warmth that was still left as he curled up tightly around the body, nuzzling himself between James’s side, underneath one of his arms.

He whimpered, his ears flattened against his head to block out the roaring of the wind outside that had begun to pick up out of nowhere, sounding more blood pumping and rushing through his ears. 

If he could ignore everything else, he suddenly felt like a baby pup again, reminiscing in the times his father would tell him about how he’d curl up so tightly in a ball on James’s chest whenever he’d rock the puppy to sleep. In that moment, things felt peaceful, and if Fox thought hard enough, he forced his brain to picture the imaginary sounds of his father’s snores as he cuddled close to the still body, absorbing the last of its warmth. 

Fox’s own warmth left him and he shivered, whimpering to himself as he buried his cold nose into his own tail, moving closer to his father. 

He tried to ignore the world around him as things began to grow hazy and it felt like the world was slipping out from underneath him. Before the pup knew it, the feeling of James’s beside him had suddenly vanished, and he swiftly lifted his head. 

The last thing he saw was him alone in an empty void, the appearance of an unforgiving galaxy surrounding him, as if the stars were mocking him as they glistened in the distance. Fear striking him suddenly, the vulpine woke up.

—

Fox shot up in his bed in an instant, feeling like sweat was pouring out from his pores. A sudden, familiar feeling made his stomach twinge, and the vulpine immediately got the hint and jumped out of his bed, rushing to the bathroom attached to his quarters.

The vulpine threw himself to his knees, perched over the toilet bowl as the contents of last night’s dinner came up and out of his throat, his stomach twisting in anxiety from his dream that had turned into a nightmare. He continued to puke until he was dry heaving, his stomach burning and yelling at him to calm his anxiety, but a feeling of panic had begun to stir in his nerves that only made things worse.

A choked sob echoed off the walls of the bathroom as the fox wiped at his already-wettened eyes. He must have cried in his sleep. The fur around his eyes was plastered down to his skin, wet from tears.

Fox coughed as he began to dry heave again, thanking the galaxy that there was nothing left to come out, yet cursing it at the same time because of how painful it still was. When he felt like he was safe enough to move, he flushed the toilet and fell back on his behind, weakly leaning against the wall.

He continued to cry, trying to keep his pitiful sounds as silent as possible, struggling for breath. The panic that settled in his body began to rise, laboring his breathing and feeling like it was closing up his windpipes. Because of his predicament, he didn’t notice when the door to his bathroom suddenly slid open.

“I knocked but I didn’t hear ya answer. I heard screams from your room, hope you’re—“ the newcomer’s words, _Falco’s_ words, immediately fell short when he took in the site in front of him. “Holy fuck- Fox!”

Fox’s shortened breath seemed to quicken when the bird found him. Remembering their last encounter, Fox weakly tried to move away but Falco quickly knelt down beside him, firmly grasping his shoulders.

“By the stars, Fox, please calm down,” Falco asked of him urgently. His tone was worried, which was a rare occurrence for the bird. 

“Hey, hey, Fox. Fox, listen to me, hey,” Falco began speaking again, his words paced quickly when he noticed how bad the situation was. “You got this, okay? You’re good, just focus on me.”

Fox couldn’t help the sob that escaped him, a single paw reaching out for Falco, desperate for any form of touch. The avian took the hint and quickly moved closer to Fox. He sat down with his legs crossed and moved the canine until he was nearly cradled in the taller teammate’s lap.

Fox had never seen Falco act like this in a few years, but he felt himself grow calmer as he felt Falco stroke along the backs of his ears. His breath began to level out and stop coming out so harshly. Regardless, a feeling of nauseation still settled in the pit of his stomach. Before he could will the feeling away, the canine was scrambling out of Falco’s hold, puking over the toilet bowl again. 

Falco could only move to sit on his legs beside him, rubbing the fox’s back as he did what he had to. Fox let out a strained, painful sound as the feeling and taste of acid invaded his mouth. Once he was convinced he was finished again, he flushed the toilet once more, moving to sit back. Fox held his knees to his chest, burying his face there. He didn’t care about the weak, puppy-like whimpers that escaped him.

“The hell happened, Fox?” Despite his words, Falco’s tone was surprisingly soft. The bird scooted over on his knees, a feathered hand rubbing the canine’s shoulder. “Hey, let me see somethin’, alright?”

Fox only let out a weak protest but didn’t fight the blue falcon as he gently grasped one of the canine’s arms, holding it so his palm was facing up as he closely inspected the underside of his arm and wrist. Before Fox could question what he was doing, Falco did the same to his other arm, and that was when he knew what was happening. Fox felt a warmth inside of him at the sound of Falco letting out a sigh of relief. He let go of Fox’s arms and his limbs fell weakly to his side before coming back up to wrap around his knees.

Fox didn’t want to look at him, embarrassed that his teammate and best friend had to see him like this. He feared that the bird would sit back and make fun of him, but it never came, feeling Falco’s worried stare burn into his skin instead.

“What happened, Fox?” Falco repeated, a finger gently grazing one of Fox’s ears as he silently tried to prompt the canine to lift his head. Fox didn’t budge, nor did he answer.

They sat in silence and Falco sighed, settling down beside Fox with his back against the wall, their shoulders brushing. The bird’s body grew tense when he felt and heard Fox’s breathing pick up, his chest rising and falling at a rapid rate.

Falco took authority and sat back up on his knees, handling the canine until he had his legs gently pushed down and he could see Fox’s face. “Hey, hey. Breathe, Fox,” he urged, a finger touching underneath the canine’s chin as he tried to meet his eyes, but Fox was doing everything to avoid them. He lightly thrashed in Falco’s hold, and the bird added, “I’m serious, Fox! I don’t want to have to bring the others in here, but I don’t want you to hurt yourself. Fox, please, breathe or you might pass out.”

That was when Fox started to feel dizzy and he could barely keep his vision straight, his head feeling like it was whirling from the oxygen deprivation. He attempted to take a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves.

Falco heaved out a sigh of relief, glad he was finally getting to him. “Good, good. Breathe in like this, okay? I’m going to count, and I want you to breathe out when I restart. Hold your breath when I’m not counting. Okay?”

It took a bit for Fox to finally nod, listening to Falco as he began to count, holding everything in when he paused, then letting it all out when he restarted. They did that several more times before Fox was doing it on his own without Falco’s assistance, and finally, he was breathing normally.

Falco let out a soft chuckle, fondly pressing his forehead against Fox’s in a friendly manner. “God. You really scared me, McCloud,” he spoke softly, his tone a light joke. “You can’t do that shit to me.”

Fox let out a weak laugh, the warmth in his body continuing to grow as Falco kept their heads pressed together. His feathers felt nice on his fur, but the Fox didn’t comment on it.

“What happened, Fox? You get sick and it scared you?” Falco asked, parting from their embrace to look him in the eyes. He didn’t let Fox avert his gaze. “And don’t say yes to that, because I know that ain’t it. You used to do this same thing in our academy days. What happened?”

Fox wanted to answer genuinely, but he didn’t really know the answer himself. He knew what happened, just not exactly what caused it. He tried to think back. “Uh- Yesterday, me and Peppy talked—“

“That old rabbit say something to you?” Falco’s eyes narrowed, interrupting him. Fox could see protectiveness in the way the avian looked at him. “He say something to cause this?”

“What? No!” Fox quickly denied it, shaking his head. “I mean, not in the way you think, Falco- You know Peppy would never do something like that. As much as he gets onto us, he’d never hurt even a flea in his fur.”

Falco sighed. “I know. I just wanted to make sure.” The bird stood up from his spot on the ground, reaching a wing down for Fox to grasp. The canine took the offer, allowing Falco to lift him up. “Let’s get off this hard floor, you need to be in a bed right now.”

Fox didn’t complain as Falco led him over to the canine’s bed, stepping aside and watching as Fox climbed into it. The avian walked over and sat down on the edge right beside Fox, looking down at him.

“You can lay here, you know,” Fox commented, looking up at him from where he was situated under the blankets. “I don’t mind.”

Falco looked like he was about to protest, but he wordlessly nodded, slipping into the bed beside him. He stared up at the ceiling for a moment before turning on his side so he was facing Fox. “You want to tell me what happened now?”

“Peppy and I talked,” Fox began again, picking back up where he started. “He...He talked to me about my childhood, and what I was like being raised by him and Dad. Then he talked to me about our life after my dad’s dea- uh, _disappearance_ and...Peppy apologized for I guess, uh, feeling like he forced me into the role of leader.”

Fox knew that Falco noticed the slight slip in James’s unknown status, but thankfully, the avian knew better than to comment.

“The conversation helped...I didn’t know I needed it. But, when I went to bed, I had a really horrible nightmare.”

Falco sighed, a soft breath of understanding leaving his lips. “You need to talk about it?”

Fox nodded. “I was back in Dad’s Cornerian apartment. The one we moved to when I started school there. It seemed...normal, but I was the only one there. There was a lot of wind outside and it got worse when I walked the neighborhood, and I found a cave in a forest and I went in there.”

Falco’s silence prompted the vulpine to continue. “When- When I walked in the cave—I had my communicator with me, by the way—but it started going off. Static, like...Like I was trying to get a transmission. It got louder the further I went in, and there I saw...Dad. He was hurt, he...he barely had any life left. I asked him not to leave me again, but he told me...how proud he was of me for what I turned Star Fox into. Then he...”

Fox hadn’t realized he’d started crying again until he felt a light feather wipe underneath his eyes, brushing away the tears that had spilled out. Fox shook his head, “I feel so stupid, Falco. Maybe the Dad in my dreams was wrong. If he saw me now, crying like this...He would think I didn’t deserve to be leader.”

“Fox, you’re the most capable leader I’ve ever met,” Falco corrected him. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You never got the chance to grieve, after all.”

The vulpine sniffled. “What do you mean?”

“As soon as it happened, you went to the academy. Fox, there were very few nights where you’d suddenly shut down like this,” Falco explained, and added, “and I put emphasis on _few_. You didn’t let yourself deal with it healthily before you just pushed it aside. I imagine all these pent up feelings are starting to crash down.”

Fox looked at him with wide, thoughtful eyes, a hint of surprise gleaming in them. “I guess so,” he sniffled again, wiping his nose with his arm. To lighten the mood, he joked, “When did you get so wise?”

“And when did ya get so dumb?” Falco shot back, earning a snort out of the vulpine.

“Thanks, Falco. For being here I mean. I feel a lot better.”

“‘Course. Naturally, when you start screaming in your sleep, I’m going to come check on you.”

“Was I loud?” Fox frowned. “I hope I didn’t wake the others.”

“Feel like they’d have made it here before me if ya did. Peppy especially. You’re like a little rabbit kit to that old man.”

Fox snorted, lightly punching Falco’s shoulder. “Stop...”

Falco laughed, but didn’t carry the topic further. The room grew quiet and their silence was comfortable as they looked at each other, and both of them had forgotten what their previous interaction had been after dinner.

Fox remembered it when Falco suddenly looked away, and Fox averted his gaze as well, feeling his cheeks burn with the loving heat of a blush and feeling a warmth tickle his stomach, making him feel queasy that somehow managed to be comforting.

Fox wanted to ask what was wrong, but he didn’t want to ruin the moment they had together. Before he could bother with a decision, however, the falcon spoke up.

“Hey, Fox, I- uh...” Falco began, struggling for words. “I’m sorry for snapping at ya earlier.”

“Oh, uh—“

“You know. After dinner. I know you were only wonderin’, I just—“

“No, no, I shouldn’t have tried to pry,” Fox interrupted him, shaking his head. “It’s your business.”

“I shouldn’t have taken it out on ya, though,” Falco faced the vulpine again. “It’s just something that’s been on my mind, that’s all. I don’t know if I’m ready to talk about it...but just wanted to say that. I don’t want to worry ya.”

“You’re not hurt, right?” Fox questioned him carefully, tone full of worry.

“Nothin’ like that. It’s just- Hmm. Personal business, ya know?”

“Yeah...” Fox nodded along, voice quiet. “I’ll be here if you ever need to talk about it.”

Falco nodded a silent thank you, and Fox noticed the small smile on his beak when the vulpine suddenly let out a yawn.

Once again, things grew quiet between the two, but it still wasn’t an inconvenience. Fox began to wonder if the bird had fallen asleep.

“Falco?” Fox tried, his voice filled with sleepiness. He was going to just turn over and go to sleep, but a tired response interrupted him.

“Mmh?”

“Can you stay here the night?” Fox asked him softly, before blushing and quickly adding, “You know, just in case I have another nightmare or something.”

Falco let out a soft snort. “Sure, Fox. Whatever ya want.” 

Fox watched intently as the bird yawned. How desperately he wanted to scoot forward and wrap himself up with those wings, but he resisted the urge. Instead, he closed his eyes, comforted by the fact that they were still within close proximity of each other, even if they weren’t touching.

Fox was still awake when he heard Falco’s breathing begin to slow as he entered a deep sleep, and he didn’t have to open his eyes to know that his chest was rising and falling in a steady rhythm. 

Hoping he’d have good dreams this time around, the vulpine focused on Falco’s breathing and copied it, eventually drifting off into his own, nightmare-free, peaceful slumber.


	3. Chapter 3

When Fox awoke in his bed, he had forgotten about his predicament last night, so waking up to see a sleeping Falco right next to him definitely came as a surprise. He nearly startled before quickly recollecting himself, gathering the memories of last night. 

A sudden wave of heat washed over his body, feeling sudden embarrassment over how he acted last night. He felt a little better mentally, now that he had gotten that load off his chest, but...

Did Falco think any less of him as a leader? As a friend?

Fox didn’t notice when Falco began to stir awake and it was already too late when their eyes met. The bird smirked sleepily, his beak opening up in a loud yawn. “How long ya been staring at me, creep?”

“What? Oh! Um-“ Fox stumbled over his words, but his explanation was cut off with a laugh from the bird.

“I was just messin’ with you, Fox. I could see you were just zoned out,” Falco shook his head, smiling at the brief, sheepish laugh that Fox gave. “What were you thinkin’ about?”

“Uh, I was just thinking about last night, I guess,” Fox frowned, sitting up and rubbing the back of his head shyly. “About how I acted. I was just...Hoping you don’t see me any differently.”

Falco, still nestled under the blankets of Fox’s bed, gently tugged on the canine’s arm with a wing. “Hey, c’mere,” he spoke, tone soft, urging Fox to lay back down next to him. Fox allowed the bird to move him and he was laid back down, facing him once again. “What d’ya mean by that?”

Falco’s words were slightly slurred by sleepiness, but Fox could understand him easily. “Y’know,” the vulpine tried, answering as Falco let out another yawn. “It’s a little embarrassing to see me, well...break down like that.”

Falco shook his head. “You ever seen me cry before?”

“No...?”

“Well, one day, ya will. One day you’ll see Slip cry, one day you’ll see Peppy cry. You’re not a brick wall, McCloud. You got emotions too, even if you’re a leader.”

Fox slowly nodded, though he still found it hard to believe.

“I’ve seen ya cry several times, Fox. You’d weep like a damn puppy if you got stressed with school. Hell, I’ve even been with ya every time you’ve puked out your own insides. You have a damned hard time keeping your liquor down, ya know.”

Fox blushed madly, letting out a snort of laughter. “We were kids back then, you jerk!”

“You were sixteen, you’re eighteen now. Ain’t that long ago. Still a kid.”

Fox rolled his eyes. “You can’t speak much, you’re only nineteen. You’re a kid too! And besides, I didn’t even drink this time! I just felt sick. Even if I _wanted_ to drink, Peppy probably wouldn’t allow it on the ship.”

“Nah, probably not,” Falco snickered. He laid one of his wings underneath his head, getting comfortable as he looked at Fox. “Ya ever tell the old man about all that drinking you did instead of your academy work? All those parties you snuck off to?”

“You mean the parties that _you_ dragged me to?” Fox chuckled, returning Falco’s stare. “No. I’m sure he knows, though.” The vulpine laughed at the thought of Peppy scolding him for his wild youth, and Falco shared his laughter as if he was reading his mind.

Fox was grateful for the light turn their conversation took, glad that he was able to talk with his best friend and have everything be the same.

Falco cleared his throat. “Anyways, no, Fox, I’d never see you differently. I’ve always seen you the same and nothing has changed that.”

Fox smiled at him, flashing sharp fangs. “Thanks, Falco.”

“Yeah. I’m still here, ain’t I? Even laid in your bed with you all night like watching over a baby.”

Fox rolled his eyes with a playful huff. “I think you’ve made your point.”

“Honestly, I’m a little surprised you didn’t ask me to hold ya all night like some whiny girlfriend. Aftercare, y’know? You—“

Falco’s voice cut off with a surprised noise when Fox suddenly clamped his beak shut with paw. “Oh my God, shut up!” Fox laughed out, his face heated with a blush. His nostrils flared in his huffed laughter. “I swear, you’re insufferable sometimes!”

“Ya haven’t kicked me off the team yet,” Falco remarked after prying Fox’s paw off his beak, letting out a laugh. “Alright, quit yapping. I’ll leave you alone.”

Fox retracted his paw with a satisfied smirk, his expression almost smug. “I guess we should get up now before Peppy comes looking for us. Do you want to have to explain to him why you’re in my bed?”

Falco rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I’ll tell him you forced me into a slumber party like a little girl. The old man ain’t gonna come lookin’ unless the world starts ending.” Despite his words, the bird sat up in the bed, stretching his limbs. 

Fox sat up as well, but he wasn’t able to move far before Falco leaned over and playfully bumped his forehead against Fox’s own, holding it there as a wing came to rest around the nape of his neck. Falco spoke again, “Which it won’t end, by the way, ‘cause we’re about to have a vacation.”

“Hey, this isn’t a vacation, remember? We still have to stay alert!” Fox smiled, leaning his head back slightly and lightly bumping it against Falco’s in return. He wiggled out of the bird’s grasp and his wing fell off from around his shoulders as the vulpine moved to get out of bed.

“Whatever you wanna call it, it’s still a vacation,” Falco rolled his eyes with a smug smile. “Brush those damn fangs, by the way. Your breath smells like shit.”

“I threw up! Be nice to me,” Fox whined mockingly, idly scratching his back with his claws. “You stink, too. Do all birds have that weird smell? I got that scent all in my bed now.”

“Alright, don’t get cocky, jackass,” Falco huffed as he got out of the bed. “I don’t comment any time you smell like a wet dog. Seriously, though. Brush your teeth.”

“I planned on it!” Fox protested, walking to his bathroom. He got his toothbrush out and got to work after spreading the minty paste along its bristles, looking in the mirror at his fangs as he brushed along them. He looked at the approaching bird in the mirror when Falco walked in behind him.

“You gonna follow me around?” Fox said after spitting in the sink before putting the brush back in his maw.

Falco leaned back against the wall, his wings crossed against his chest. “Just making sure ya got the job done.”

Fox spit again for the final time, cupping water in his paws and bringing it up to his muzzle, sloshing it around in his mouth before spitting it out. He cut the sink off, intentionally flinging water off his paws in Falco’s direction, smirking when the bird shot him a glare. Fox teased, “Admit it. You’re still worried about me.”

“The hell would I be worried about?” Falco huffed, purposefully ruffling his feathers out.

“I’m not gonna break down again, Falco. I feel fine. You can go now.” Fox lightly poked the bird on his clothed chest.

“Am I not allowed to be around my best friend?” Falco asked, his last words spoken in a tone of a playful mock as he leaned his head down a little to be level with Fox’s eyes.

“I kinda need the privacy to shower. I suggest you take one, too,” Fox shook his head at him with a fond laugh. “Hurry before your bird scent fills my bathroom, too.”

“And? Do you really care? I swear it ain’t even that bad. You dogs just got the strongest noses.”

“I’m a fox!”

“Yeah? Same difference.”

Instead of replying, two paws grasped both sides of Falco’s head and he playfully leaned him down and bumped their foreheads. He didn’t do it rough enough to hurt, but it wasn’t soft either. The force was just enough to catch the bird by a light surprise instead of actually hurting him.

Falco let out a soft noise of surprise, glaring down at the vulpine. “Fucker,” he grit out light-heartedly, not a single ounce of maliciousness in his voice. Fox only laughed in response, his paws still cupped around his cheeks as he looked up at his taller teammate. 

Things grew silent between the two as Fox looked up at him, suddenly realizing where his paws were still placed. They twitched slightly, like he was about to move them, but something inside him resisted as they stayed put. Suddenly, the fox could hear his blood rushing in his ears as his heart thumped wildly. 

He wondered if Falco could hear it, too.

Something inside of Fox made him move as he stood up on the tips of his feet, softly meeting Falco’s beak with his own muzzle in some weird, quick attempt to kiss him. The moment was as chaste as could be, and slightly awkward and rushed. It didn’t really work out, but at the same time, it was enough to make Fox’s stomach start doing flips inside his body, the butterflies that had settled long ago finally starting to get to him. 

Before the avian could really react, Fox realized what he’d done and pulled away. He backed up, his back hitting the counter of the sink. Anxiously, his gaze dropped to the floor, not wanting to look at Falco anymore. He didn’t want to try to read his reaction out of fear of rejection.

“Uh, I should shower now,” Fox said quickly, leaving no room for Falco to comment on anything when he turned away, turning the shower on and waiting for it to warm up. That was the hint that the vulpine needed his privacy. Luckily, Falco got it without another word and slipped out of the room. 

With a sigh of relief, Fox undressed and stepped into the shower, letting the water plaster his fur against his body, making him appear a lot smaller than he already was. After what happened, he felt even smaller than that. He couldn’t believe he’d actually done that.

Maybe he should have talked to Falco after it happened, tried to read his reaction...but Fox didn’t think he could take it if it was anything bad. Maybe it was good he didn’t check after all. 

Fox just wasn’t sure.

He let his mind race as he idly shampooed his fur and made sure to scrub good to get the skin underneath his pelt as well. He didn’t remember to condition his fur this time, his mind too caught up in the whole situation.

Did Falco hate him now? Had he ruined _everything_ between them?

Fox wanted to cry, but he held back the stinging tears as he turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, drying off. When he was fully dry, that was when he’d realized he’d forgotten to condition his fur, looking in the mirror at how frizzy and messy his coat was. Fox sighed, grabbing a hairbrush and trying to brush it flat. That proved to be a bad idea when the object immediately got tangled in his fur, and tugging it served no good other than pulling out winces from his mouth.

With a grumble, he left the brush at the top of his head and got dressed, pulling on another plain, black tank top and dressing in green, plaid sleep shorts. He didn’t bother with anything else as he exited his room, wandering down the hallway with his eyes pointed at the ground. He walked into the break room, hoping he wouldn’t come across Falco there.

To his luck, only Peppy was seated at the dining table, and he barely looked up from what he was eating as the leader entered. What the hare saw out of the corner of his eye, however, made him double take and actually look at what was in front of him, taking in the sight of Star Fox’s fearless leader.

“Woah there, Fox. Good mornin’ to you too. You wake up on the wrong side of the bed?” Peppy joked lightly with him, his eyes wide and mouth agape.

“I guess you could say that,” Fox grumbled, about to turn away to see what they still had in store for breakfast today.

“Seriously, boy, get over here. What’s gotten into you this mornin’?” Peppy urged the fox over and he begrudgingly trotted to the table, letting Peppy move him to the seat in front of him. The hare began to intently pick at the knots and tangles underneath the hairbrush in an attempt to free it from its grip in his fur.

“First thing you’re gettin’ is a trim as soon as we get on Corneria. By the stars, no wonder your fur is so tangled,” Peppy tutted over him, still trying to get out all the knots. “And, damn— no conditioner either? Have you lost your mind? What would Pepper say if he saw that you were leadin’ Star Fox lookin’ like this?”

“Pepper ain’t gonna be seein’ me for at least another day,” Fox responded, mocking Peppy’s accent. He winced when a knot in his pelt was suddenly harshly tugged on. “Ow!”

“Drop the attitude, son, before I just decide to shave all that fur off of ya,” Peppy remarked, though his threat was empty. “Seriously, Fox, what is wrong with you this morning?”

“It’s nothing,” Fox frowned, sitting back and letting the hare continue to do his work. He groaned, trying to sit comfortably, but his body was starting to cramp a bit. “Is it almost out?”

“You’re just gonna get it stuck more if ya keep squirmin’ like that.”

Fox grumbled but tried to sit as still as possible, wanting it to be over with already. “I just forgot to use conditioner, that’s all,” he spoke, trying to pass the time with idle conversation. “I thought maybe I could brush it out when it got frizzy.”

“Well, ya couldn’t,” Peppy frowned, never taking his eyes off of his work in front of him. “Almost done...there. That should do it.”

Fox sat up a little and twisted around to take the brush when Peppy handed it to him. Tufts of light brown fur were caught in the hairbrush but not enough to cause concern. 

“You’re lucky you don’t got some kind of bald patch on ya,” Peppy commented, using his paw to brush down the place on his fur where the brush had been stuck. It felt like he was running his paw through severely dry, fried hair. “Can barely notice a difference. Ya look like a mess though, son.”

“I just had a rough night, I guess,” Fox frowned, rubbing his head. It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t exactly the truth, either. His night wasn’t what was causing him problems, but more so it was what he’d done to Falco.

Peppy made a hum of acknowledgement, and that was when Fox knew his older teammate could tell he was lying. Fortunately, the hare did not press on.

“Falco was askin’ about ya, earlier,” Peppy went on, changing the subject. “Not long before you came in here, in fact.”

Fox’s ears flattened. “Oh. Really?”

His bodily reaction and tone did not fall short on Peppy, and the hare gave him a questionable look before continuing. “He asked me what you usually eat for breakfast. Told ‘im I had no earthly idea ‘cause you usually eat after I do. He ran along not long after that. Looked like somethin’ had spooked the boy.”

If Fox’s ears could pin down any further, they would have. “Oh.”

“That boy can be a bit of a strange fella, I’ll tell you what,” Peppy said carefully, eyeing Fox suspiciously. The vulpine could tell he was trying to piece something together. “Don’t got a clue why he’d want to know somethin’ like that out of nowhere.”

“Um.”

“You got any ideas?”

Fox picked up that Peppy was wisely trying to pry something out of the vulpine, but he didn’t know if he was really ready to tell yet. “Uh. No.”

Peppy sighed, giving up with the vague plays on his head and deciding to be blunt. “Y’know, if something’s happened, Fox, you can tell me about it.”

Fox felt a blush spread across his face and he shook his head, feeling heated under his fur. “Nothing’s happened,” he objected, a bit too quickly to not be suspicious.

Peppy eyed him. “Fox, I raised you just about as much as your old man did. I can tell when somethin’ is up, but I’m not going to pester ya about it. Just lettin’ you know, the offer is always there to have me listen to whatever is swimmin’ around in that brain of yours.”

“...Yeah. Thanks, Peps.”

“If anybody’s done somethin’ to you...said somethin’, hurt you in some way...”

“What?” Fox’s eyes widened. “No! No, not that, uh...No, I’m...I’ve done something. I’m in the bad here, I think...” Although the last two sentences were spoken quietly, they did not fall deaf on Peppy’s large ears, and Fox didn’t realize what he’d said aloud until it was too late. “Shit.”

Peppy gave Fox a concerned look, one of his brows raised. “Talk to me, Fox,” his voice was serious and firm, yet caring. “What have you done?”

“Fuck, I... Peppy, it was just a mistake. I did something really, _really_ stupid.” As Fox rambled, his breathing picked up a bit.

“Fox. _Breathe_ , son. Breathe.” Peppy laid a large paw over the top of one of Fox’s own. “It ain’t helpin’ to be hyperventilatin’ like that.”

Fox shuddered, counting in his head and trying to inhale and exhale in time with the numbers. He’d managed to calm himself down as Peppy sat there, gently patting one of his paws and waiting patiently.

“Good, there ya go, son. Now tell me- what did you do, Fox?” Peppy asked him as soon as the vulpine was breathing normally again.

“I don’t...I don’t know how to say it.”

“You did somethin’ to Falco, I’m guessin’?”

“...Yeah. I think he might hate me for it now.”

“Son, if he hated you, I don’t think he’d be askin’ me what you prefer for breakfast in the mornin’.”

“No, it’s...” Fox shook his head desperately. “It’s gotta be some kind of misunderstanding.”

“What? Him askin’ that?” Peppy asked, to which Fox nodded. The hare hummed. “Don’t know if there’s much room to misinterpret anythin’, son. Sounds to me like he wanted to make ya somethin’ to eat.”

“No, no, he hates me now...I know he does. How could he not?” Fox frowned, feeling tears sting his eyes. Maybe he was overthinking things, but he was too lost down a path of anxiety to care.

“It’d be easier to help ya, Fox, if ya told me what happened,” Peppy tried, his voice soft and understanding.

“...I don’t know. I’m scared you’d hate me for it, too.”

“Fox, after all we been through, nothin’ could make me hate you, leveret,” Peppy shook his head, and Fox took note of his usage of the term for a baby hare. “You ain’t betrayin’ the team, are ya?”

“What? No!”

“And are you helpin’ one of these other boys betray the team?”

“ _No!_ Peppy, what—“

“Then what are you so afraid of, son? There’s nothin’ that could make me hate ya.”

Fox’s fur flattened slightly, but he still looked wary. “I’m sorry. It’s just hard to say, I guess.”

“I can tell that much,” Peppy joked lightly, attempting to lighten the room, but it fell short. He stopped trying to joke around, getting serious when he noticed the boy was crying.

“Oh, Fox, I’m sure it ain’t that bad,” Peppy tried, his voice as soft as the blue feather’s on Falco’s skin. “Hey, look at me. Son. I’m here, you ain’t got nothin’ to cry about.”

“I just...I don’t want Falco to hate me, Papa,” Fox whimpered, not even noticing the usage of an old name he’d stopped calling Peppy when he got an attitude after his father disappeared. “He’s one of my best friends. I don’t want to lose him.”

“Fox, have you considered talkin’ to him?”

“No!” Fox exclaimed, shrinking in his seat when his voice came out louder than he’d intended. “No, no...I can’t. He hates me.”

“Fox...I’m sure that boy is in the control room right now playin’ those video games he’s always on. Hell, he may even be waiting on you to join ‘im. He’s not out to get you.”

Fox furiously wiped at his tears with his arm, the dryness of his fur irritating his skin. Peppy sighed, moving a paw to rest on the canine’s shoulder.

“Fox, I’d like you to tell me what exactly happened,” the hare said truthfully. “You don’t have to. I ain’t gonna pressure ya, but it’d make it a lot easier on both of us.”

Fox nodded, swallowing as he tried to think of how to word it. He sniffled once before he began to speak. “Well, last night while we were doing dishes, we kinda...fought? No, argued...?”

Fox frowned, shaking his head. “No, I don’t know how to describe it. But he snapped at me because there was something off about him.”

“Let me guess- you bothered ‘im about it?”

“Uh...Kinda?”

“Son, is that all that you’re worried about?”

“No, I’m not finished,” Fox shook his head again. “After that, I went to bed and I had a nightmare. I got really sick. I guess Falco heard me and he was in my room and he helped comfort me and stuff. I asked him about what was bothering him earlier- he didn’t say, just personal business. I asked him to stay the night...you know, in case I got another nightmare, right?”

“No, yeah, ‘course,” Peppy nodded along to the boy’s words. “Go on.”

“Um. He slept by me, in my bed. Things were okay this morning. Great, in fact. Better than they’ve ever been before. We were joking around a lot, we talked through some stuff. And then, uh...” Fox bit his bottom lip and chewed on it nervously. “I, uh...”

“Is this where whatever you’re worried about plays in?” Peppy asked curiously.

“Um, yeah. I...” Fox struggled on his words, grateful that Peppy somehow found him tolerable enough to remain patient. Deciding to tough it through, the canine just decided to force it out. “I kissed Falco.”

Fox sank in his seat, growing anxious with the hare’s loud silence. “Sorry,” he whimpered out. “I know it was really wrong of me to do. I messed up, I think.”

Peppy finally gathered himself. “No, Fox, I...Don’t be sorry. You ain’t done nothin’ wrong, I was just expecting somethin’ a lot worse.”

Fox sniffled. “Worse?”

“I thought ya were gonna tell me y’all got into a fist fight or somethin’. Fox, kissin’ him...” Fox grew embarrassed when Peppy suddenly let out a soft laugh, but the hare quickly added, “I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself. I just wish you could see how silly it all is.”

Fox whined softly. “It’s not silly! It feels wrong.”

“How’d he react, Fox?”

“...I don’t know. I basically told him to get out. I didn’t really say it, though. Just... You know.”

“Jeez, son, you really are a mess,” Peppy huffed a soft laugh. “Just talk to ‘im. I promise things ain’t as bad as they seem. When was the last time ya liked somebody?”

“I, um...I’ve always liked Falco through school, kind of.” At his confession, Fox felt the heat of an embarrassed blush underneath his fur.

Peppy had a soft smile on his face, one that Fox didn’t entirely understand. He was still embarrassed over everything.

“Talk to him, Fox. Just trust me on that,” Peppy assured him, patting his shoulder. 

“I guess...” Fox mumbled, his stomach suddenly growling. He was hungry, but at the same time, he didn’t feel like really eating. He watched silently as Peppy suddenly stood from his seat. 

“I’m gonna be back in my room for a bit, if you need me for anythin’,” Peppy let him know, and Fox silently thanked him for the heads up. “Remember, son. Just talk to him, and remember to breathe.”

Fox swallowed and nodded silently. His body moved whenever Peppy clasped a large paw on his shoulder and patted him there reassuringly. He watched as the hare padded out of the room, able to see him turn the corner just before the doors slid closed. For the second time that morning, he was alone.

Despite his stomach growling, the vulpine left the room not long after, unsure if he would even be able to keep down any food he’d consume. Against his own anxiety, he walked to the control room, looking around as the doors slid open upon his arrival.

Just as Peppy had assumed, Falco was playing on his game system, his back turned to the fox. Slippy was seated in front of him, playing as well. If Fox looked hard enough, he could see his own console laid out beside Falco. He must have grabbed it earlier in the morning.

“Hey, Fox!” Slippy was the one to greet him, and the vulpine winced as he failed to be able to slip past the two without being noticed. “Wanna play with us?”

“Uh...no, I’m fine.”

“Aww, come on!”

“No, really, I’m fine. I don’t feel like it, Slip.”

“Not even one round?”

Fox offered an apologetic smile, shaking his head in response. He did everything he could to avoid Falco’s eyes as he noticed the avian turn to look at him in the corner of his vision. 

Glad that his friend had stopped making the offer, he sat down at a table in the room. An idea came to mind. “Actually, Slip,” Fox began, his voice a little raised. “You got your map of Corneria? We can plan out our visit.”

“Oh, yeah! I grabbed it this morning. You wanna do this so early?”

“Well, we land tomorrow,” Fox smiled at him. “Better to be as prepared as possible.”

The vulpine felt bad about excluding Falco, and also taking away one person that was already hanging out with him, but despite the overwhelming evidence that countered his thoughts, Fox figured the avian just wouldn’t want to be around him.

He watched Slippy say something to Falco as the bird hunched over his console, grumpily pressing hard on the buttons. His mood didn’t go unnoticed by Slippy, but the frog didn’t question it as he walked over to the table, taking a seat and pulling out his map. He spread it out on the table.

“This map is up to date, as far as I know!” Slippy smiled. “They may have changed it a bit— there could be new stuff now, but it shouldn’t be anything too drastic.”

“Alright,” Fox nodded his head in acknowledgement. He sat up slightly, leaning over the table. “Wanna look at restaurants? A proper meal sounds really nice.”

“Oh! What kinda food do you like, Fox? What about seafood?”

“Sounds fine to me. Last thing we need to plan out is some visits to some grocery stores to stock up on some things for the ship.”

Spotting something on the map, Fox pointed at it with a claw. “Hey, there’s a cafe here. It’d be nice to go there first thing in the morning. You like coffee?”

“Only if it’s got a lot of sugar,” Slippy admitted with a small laugh.

“Me too, Slip,” Fox assured him. He browsed the map more. “Got any ideas on fun things to do?”

“There’s a waterpark here! A bowling alley there, movie theater...Oh! Have you ever been to a skating rink before?”

“Nah. Sounds fun, though.”

“And there’s an arcade here!” Slippy tapped on the map with a rounded finger. “Do you know where we’re gonna be sleeping?”

“I imagine we’ll be meeting with Pepper first thing in the morning to figure that out,” Fox told him thoughtfully. “Wherever we stay, I think he’d pay the costs.”

“I hope we get somewhere nice,” Slippy smiled dreamily to himself, and Fox could tell he was lost in his own thoughts. “Not some shabby little motel.”

“Pepper wouldn’t put us in a motel,” Fox laughed softly. “You don’t have to worry about that.”

The two continued to plan things out together. At some point, Peppy had entered the room. He gave Fox a questioning look, one that he knew what the hare was intending to ask. _Did ya talk to Falco yet?_ he imagined Peppy asking him. With a frown, Fox shook his head at him.

“Morning, boys,” Peppy greeted the two, taking a seat at the table. “You eat breakfast, Slippy? I didn’t see ya this morning.”

“I just grabbed a bag of chips,” Slippy responded, a sheepish laugh escaping him. He changed the subject, pushing the Cornerian map towards the hare. “We’re planning out our visit. You got anything in mind?”

Fox told Peppy about the little cafe he spotted on the map, pointing at it with his finger. The hare hummed thoughtfully. “Some coffee from a cafe sounds nice about now. The stuff we got is startin’ to feel cheap.”

“That’s because it is,” Fox responded with a laugh. “We need to stock up on some good stuff this time around.”

The three continued to plan things out for the next few hours. By the time they were finished, they had a pretty solid plan that would be set in stone the second they landed in the morning. At some point, they had gotten out a permanent marker to mark up the map so they wouldn’t forget their plans.

Lunch time rolled around, and Slippy hopped off to the break room with Falco to get a snack. That left Peppy and Fox alone—for the most part. ROB was there, of course, but the operator was hardly noticeable.

“Fox,” Peppy began, noticing the way Fox turned his gaze away. “Why have you not spoken to ‘im yet?”

“I don’t know,” Fox frowned, and he truly didn’t. All he could really say was that he just felt nervous. “He seemed like he was in a bad mood.”

Peppy sighed. “You can’t avoid this forever, ya know. If you don’t take initiative, I know that boy well enough to say he’ll confront you eventually. And Fox, I don’t know if he’d be so happy about doin’ it.”

Fox knew that Peppy was right. He nodded sheepishly, acknowledging the hare’s words, though they didn’t fully stick in his head. 

“And personal business aside, Fox,” Peppy continued. “There shouldn’t be any kind of rift in your team. Let’s say we got a sudden distress call right now. That tension can lead to some horrible things.”

“No, yeah, you’re right,” Fox sighed out. Before he could respond further, Slippy and Falco entered the room once again. Peppy greeted both of them but Fox stayed silent, getting out of his seat and heading over to sit on the couch at the side of the room. 

He watched as Slippy went back over to play video games again with Falco, and Peppy sat at the table still, observing the Cornerian map in front of him as if he were overlooking their plans once again.

The vulpine let out a sigh, turning so that he was laying on the couch, propping his feet up on one of the cushions. A nap sounded nice to him right now. He’d face his fears afterwards.

Trying to ignore the hunger that lingered in his stomach, Fox allowed himself to close his eyes, feeling himself start to drift off already. He was admittedly rather tired, considering what he went through last night. Plus, although against Peppy’s advice, he just needed an escape from his current situation. Feeling like he was entirely justified, his body finally allowed itself to fall asleep entirely.

Fox wasn’t sure how long he’d slept before he was being shaken awake, startling from the touch on his shoulder. He looked around before looking up, meeting Peppy’s concerned eyes. The hare knelt down by the couch so he was level with Fox.

“Huh? Did something happened?” Fox asked, voice sleepy and slightly out of breath from being startled. He felt a little disorientated.

Peppy’s voice was soft and quiet when he responded, and Fox didn’t miss the concerned tone either. “Son, you were whinin’ in your sleep.”

“I was...?” Fox breathed out. He rubbed the tiredness out of one of his eyes, making note of the wetness there. He must have been crying again.

“You have another nightmare? I know you mentioned you had one last night.”

“Um, I...I don’t know,” Fox spoke truthfully. The dream must have immediately slipped his mind upon being woken up. All he could remember was a vague feeling of panic left over in his system as his stomach lightly twisted.

Peppy could tell that the fox was being genuine. A large paw rubbed along Fox’s shoulder. The vulpine still felt disorientated, as if he had just woken up after sleeping for years. “What time is it?”

“4 PM. You slept a good three hours, Fox,” Peppy responded to him. “Hey, ya feelin’ alright? No sickness?”

“I’m fine, I think,” Fox spoke, though his voice was unsure. Despite his words, a pit of anxiety settled at the bottom of his stomach. He swallowed dryly, trying to ignore it. “I’m gonna go get some water.”

“Here, stay put,” Peppy offered as he stood back up straight. “I’ll get it for ya.”

Before Fox could protest, the hare was heading out of the room and off to the break room. As he waited silently, he could feel pairs of eyes on him, their stares burning through his skin. He tried his best to ignore it.

Peppy came back with a glass of water, kneeling back down and handing it over to Fox. He thanked him silently as he took the glass, nearly chugging it down.

“Hey, drink slower,” Peppy advised him gently. “Jeez, son. Have you even eaten today?”

“No,” Fox admitted, swallowing down the last bit of water before he handed the glass over. He had drank about half of it. Peppy set the glass down next to the couch.

“You want me to fix you somethin’? Or, I should ask, do ya even _plan_ on eating anything?”

“...I don’t know if I would be able to keep it down,” Fox sighed, feeling his stomach twist again. “I guess not.”

Peppy gave the vulpine a long, bare look. Fox knew what the hare wanted to say, but the words never left his mouth thanks to Falco being in the room.

“I’ll eat something at dinner time,” Fox promised him, though it was empty. Despite his words, he didn’t make plans to do it.

Peppy stood up straight with a sigh, giving Fox one long look before nodding his head and walking away.

Fox knew that the hare knew better than to ask about his situation with Falco in front of the bird. If Fox could make any guesses, he would assume that Peppy was waiting for a moment that they were together.

The vulpine felt guilty, but he wasn’t going to allow Peppy to get that moment. He wanted to avoid the entire situation as much as possible. 

By his logic, Fox hoped that maybe time would pass long enough and Falco would just forget about it. Or, Falco would realize Fox didn’t want to talk about it again and it stopped being a problem.

Both of those assumptions were stupid, however, because in reality Falco would just keep pressing. Deep inside, Fox knew this as a truth, but his anxiety fooled him to believe there was a true way out.

Dinner time rolled around and Fox slipped past his three teammates and into his private quarters from down the hallway. He didn’t know if the others saw him head past, though they’d surely know where he was at when, inevitably, he didn’t show up for dinner.

As he stepped in his room, his stomach growled as if his organs were arguing with him. He really was hungry, and perhaps he would be able to keep his food down, but avoiding Falco felt more urgent to him. Perhaps he could sneak out in the middle of the night to grab something quick to eat. 

He wouldn’t have to worry about this tomorrow. They’d be in Corneria and they’d all likely be doing their own thing the times that they weren’t hanging out together. 

Fox thought back on the words Peppy had spoken to him earlier. He couldn’t let this cause a rift in their team during business. Fox wanted to say it wouldn’t, but what if he was wrong? What if they were on a mission, and something terrible happened due to a lack of communication?

Fox sighed, shaking his head. It was best not for him to dwell on it. 

He laid down on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He drifted in and out of a light, dazed sleep as his body calmed down, feeling like it were sinking into the comfortable mattress. He was able to take what felt like a small, peaceful nap, undisturbed, up until the hunger pains in his stomach woke him up.

Sitting up, Fox checked the time. Only about two hours had passed since he fell asleep, but it had felt like only minutes. Disorientated, the vulpine got out of bed, stretching his limbs out. Surely the rest of his team wouldn’t still be in the break room, so he could grab something quick to satisfy his hunger until he could get something real tomorrow. 

Fox yawned as he stepped out of his room, walking down the hallway. Everything was quiet, so he assumed his teammates were either in their own rooms, or back in the control room after dinner.

He just hoped that he wouldn’t cross paths with Falco.

Almost as soon as he silently wished they wouldn’t meet, Falco rounded the corner and Fox stopped abruptly in his tracks, his eyes widening. The avian didn’t spot him immediately, letting out a tired yawn as he scratched his back with a wing then stretched out his arms. When Falco’s eyes opened back up, that was when they made eye contact.

“Um, hey,” Fox tried, voice unsure, regretting ever leaving his room. Actually, he was starting to regret never talking to him about things too. He should have listened to Peppy. “I was just leaving my room to...” Fox’s voice trailed off, feeling like he was talking too much.

Falco looked at him with narrowed eyes and crossed arms. Fox took a step, like he was about to just keep walking past him and into the break room, but Falco stepped forward, stopping him. He made a spin motion with one of his feathered fingers, pointing back at Fox’s bedroom door.

Before Fox could question what he meant, Falco spoke, “Back in your room.” Fox’s tail twitched nervously and he hated the way he wanted to fold in and listen to him, but he was hungry.

“No, I was just going to go get—“

“Fox.” Falco’s tone was cool and left no argument. “To your room.” Not waiting for the vulpine, Falco walked towards Fox’s bedroom, giving him a cold, expectant look before slipping inside. 

Not wanting Falco in his room without him, Fox hurried to meet him in his quarters. His whiskers twitched irritably as the door slid behind him once he entered. “Falco, you can’t just—“

“The fuck is your deal, McCloud?” Falco wasted no time in getting straight to the point, his voice raised and angry. Fox winced lightly.

“Huh?”

“Don’t play stupid! You’ve been avoidin’ me all day,” Falco huffed, pointing an accusatory finger at him. “I could _see_ the way you’ve been doing everything just to not even have to talk to me!”

Fox wanted to argue back, his fur bristling, but he knew he had no stance. Falco was entirely justified.

“You can’t do that shit to me, Fox,” Falco scowled at him, giving him a look of temporary hatred before turning his back and throwing his wings up in the air in frustration. He paced slightly at a slow rate. “What you did this morning...then just- just...just acting like I don’t even exist!”

Fox’s head hung low, his feelings hurt—not necessarily for himself, but more so for Falco.

“You’re an asshole, y’know?” Falco turned back around, getting up close and digging a finger in Fox’s chest harshly, lightly shoving him. The action took Fox by surprise and he jolted back, looking up at Falco with bared fangs, irritated that the bird was getting in his space. Falco didn’t waver, not even a bit, as he stood his ground. He towered over Fox in height, the top of the vulpine’s head only coming up around where Falco’s shoulders and neck met. 

Falco knew that the Fox was considering their height difference in the brief moment of silence and the avian purposefully ruffled his feathers out, making himself appear bigger than he actually was. “You’re a real fuckin’ asshole, Fox.”

Fox’s tail lashed and he used both paws to shove Falco backwards in retaliation. It wasn’t meant to be an attack, just more so to have his own space. He saw a brief look of surprise flash in Falco’s eyes, but the bird’s gaze quickly hardened.

“Falco,” Fox’s voice was raised, though not above a shout. “Look, I—“

“I don’t want to hear your bullshit excuses, McCloud,” Falco interrupted him with a hard look. “You did what you did, and you want nothin’ to do with me. That how ya want it, huh?”

Fox’s mouth was slightly agape, looking on at him in surprise. “Huh? I didn’t say—“

“No. You didn’t _say_ it, but you sure as hell showed it,” Falco hissed at him, stepping forward once again. This time, Fox didn’t try to push him back. “This how you want it, Fox? You want me off the team now, too?”

Fox didn’t know what to say. This wasn’t going in the direction he thought it’d go. He thought that Falco would hate him for the kiss, but it seemed more like the bird hated him for not _talking_ about the kiss.

What was going on? Everything he convinced himself to believe was falling apart underneath his own feet.

Before the vulpine could gather a response, Falco went on, the bird’s frustration growing as Fox didn’t respond. “You’ve made it pretty damn clear what you want, McCloud. Whatever. We’re gonna be in Corneria tomorrow, right? I’ll be out of your fur then.”

Falco gave him one last harsh look before he walked towards the door, purposefully shoving past the vulpine with such a force that nearly knocked Fox off his feet. The action snapped him out of his surprised thoughts and he quickly grabbed the bird by the wing with both of his paws to ensure a strong grip. It seemed to work when Falco tugged once, trying to break free, but was unable to do so.

“Wait, Falco, please,” Fox tried, but was only interrupted again.

“I don’t want to fuckin’ hear it, Fox,” Falco bit out. “I’m done with Star Fox, and I know what you’re going to say. I don’t want to hear how good of a pilot I am. If I’m nothin’ more than just a _pilot_ to ya, then I want nothing to do with this.”

“Please, Falco,” Fox’s eyes were wide. “Just let me speak!”

When Fox finished speaking, Falco took that moment to harshly tug his wing out of Fox’s grip, nearly making the vulpine topple over. Despite his freedom, he didn’t go anywhere, looking down at the vulpine with a harsh, cold gaze that pricked at Fox’s skin like ice.

Fox had trouble returning his gaze, fur bristling under the stare, but he managed to do so.

“Please don’t leave Star Fox-“ Fox began, quickly correcting himself, “And I don’t mean that for the sake of the team, I mean that for _me_. I need you, Falco.”

“You sure as hell don’t seem like it,” Falco grit out.

“Please, let me explain,” Fox was close to begging him at this point. He felt like the bird would slip away from him at any moment and be gone forever. “Falco, I—what I did to you, when I...when I kissed you. I thought it was a mistake. It felt like one.”

Falco’s feathers bristled angrily, and Fox quickly corrected himself, “I don’t mean that in a personal way, Falco, I meant...I meant I thought it was a mistake on your behalf. Like I maybe angered you, or forced that on you, or...”

Fox breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Falco’s feathers lie flat, but the bird was still wary. Fox went on, “I thought I’d invaded on your privacy. I...I was scared, Falco. I avoided you because I was scared of rejection. I felt like it was coming, I _convinced_ myself it was, so I guess I held off that conversation as long as I could. I see now that...that was the real mistake. I thought you hated me for what I did.”

Falco was silent, and Fox couldn’t tell what exactly the avian was thinking. Besides the cold expression, he was entirely unreadable.

Fox swallowed nervously in the silence. “I’m sorry, Falco. I know you probably don’t believe me, but it’s the truth. I’m sorry, and...And if I could go back, I would, because I know better now. I would have talked to you. I just didn’t want you to hate me, and I thought...if I avoided you I could hold off that rejection as long as possible.”

Fox didn’t realize until it was too late that he’d started crying, his tears burning hot against his skin. He gave Falco one look before stepping back, his cheeks burning in shame and embarrassment. He was starting to realize how badly he’d messed up, and he was scared it was too late to change Falco’s mind. He feared the damage had already been done.

“If you want to go still, Falco, you can,” Fox went on, looking down at his feet shamefully. “I can’t stop you, but I’ll miss you terribly.”

There was silence as Fox sniffled, and he began to wonder if Falco had already somehow slipped out of the room, but he looked up when he heard the click of a metal foot against the hard floor. Falco knelt down in front of him on one knee to be closer to his eye level. He was a little shorter than Fox from that position, but they were more level than they would be if the bird was at his full height.

Fox wiped his own tears away with his arm, looking at Falco. He couldn’t tell what the blue avian was thinking, but he thought he had an idea when he noticed dangerous tears prickling at the corners of Falco’s eyes.

“Fuck, Fox,” Falco laughed harshly, leaning slightly into the touch when Fox reached out a hesitant paw, touching Falco’s face for a brief moment before lightly brushing his thumb against the bird’s eyes, clearing the wetness. 

“You’re going to stay?” Fox asked him, voice barely above a whisper.

“I’m goin’ to stay. Idiot. I just thought you truly didn’t want me around, the way you were actin’.”

“I’m sorry, Falco. I really am. I wish...”

“Fox...shut up,” Falco laughed softly, his voice fond, yet a little sad, as if he realized things really could have just ended between them at the drop of a pin if their conversation hadn’t taken this direction. They both realized it. “You talk too much.”

Fox chuckled, his voice soft. He took Falco’s face in his paws and pressed their foreheads together, just like how everything started that morning. It was a reminder, but it was still a comforting embrace for both of them. “Let me make it up to you?”

Fox could hear Falco’s soft breaths as he held their heads together. At Falco’s silence, he took that as a go ahead and he parted their heads, tipping the bird’s head back slightly and moving forward. For the second time that day, their mouths met in a soft, chaste kiss that lasted longer than the first.

This time, Fox stuck around long enough to feel Falco react as the bird melted into the kiss until he was returning the favor just as passionately, as if both of them would die if they stopped.

Fox regretfully parted when he needed to breathe, the airway entering his nostrils being not enough to fill his lungs because it felt like the avian was stealing his breath with each kiss. His ears pinned back slightly when the moment was over. “I’m sorry- I...I should have asked. You wanted that, right?”

“Do you really have to ask?” Falco looked at him and laughed. “I thought I made myself pretty clear, dumbass.”

Fox snorted and leaned back in for a quick kiss. When he tried to pull away, Falco placed his wings around the fox’s shoulders and held him in the kiss longer. The vulpine let out a soft yip when he felt the tip of Falco’s beak nip suddenly at Fox’s bottom lip.

“That was for what you put me through today,” Falco grinned after Fox gave him a playful glare. 

Fox snorted lightly before things grew silent between them. “So, Falco, I...you like me?”

Falco thumped him lightly on the head with his fingers. “‘Course I do, ya dolt. I thought I’d been making it clear for years.”

“No...wait, _years_?” 

Falco looked at him with wide eyes before laughing. “You’re telling me ya didn’t know? No way!” When he calmed down from his laughter, he went on, “But yes, Fox, I like ya. I wouldn’t be lettin’ you transfer your rabies if I didn’t.”

Fox huffed, “My vaccine is still up to date for another year.”

“Yeah? Whatever,” Falco rolled his eyes fondly at his preciseness. He changed the subject, “The real question is, how long have _you_ liked me?”

Fox tried to think back, but it was hard to pinpoint an exact time. “I don’t know. I’ve always had a bit of a crush since we were kids, kinda on and off, but it got serious around our academy days...”

“You been holdin’ off on me, huh?” Falco snickered. Before he let Fox respond, he pulled the vulpine back in for another quick kiss, as if he couldn’t believe this was truly happening, and he had to make sure what was in front of him was real. When he pulled away, he smiled at the fact that this certain red fox was still in front of him.

“I’m never gonna get you off of me now, am I?” Fox laughed, jokingly trying to push Falco away, but the bird only clung onto him, wrapping his wings around Fox in a hug.

“I’m sorry for yellin’ at ya earlier, Fox,” Falco spoke softly, still embracing him. He hugged him tighter, as if Fox would slip out of his grip. “And I’m sorry for threatening to leave the team, too. I wouldn’t have wanted to do that, I just thought, ya know, that you didn’t want me around.”

“No, I...It’s okay, Falco. I should have spoken to you,” Fox returned his hug. “What kind of leader am I to react like that?”

Falco made a soft hum of disagreement. “Stop, this doesn’t reflect your leadership skills, ya idiot. You got emotions too. I should have taken that into consideration before I started yellin’ at ya. You’ve never been the outspoken type.”

“Well, I guess we both have a part in this, yeah?” Fox pulled away from their hug to look Falco in the eyes. “But all that matters is we’ve fixed it now.”

When they parted, Falco stood up fully, a wing briefly brushing against Fox’s face in an affectionate manner. Fox wanted to lean into it, but as soon as he tried, the wing left back to Falco’s side. 

Fox had an idea in mind, but the thought embarrassed him. Trying to feel brave in this newly established thing, he began, “Um, do you want to stay in my room tonight?” 

“I already planned on it without ya even askin’,” Falco informed him with a grin. He walked over to Fox’s bed, laying down on it and looking at the vulpine expectantly. It wasn’t long before Fox had joined him, and they laid on their side facing each other, as if both of them were too shy to move closer.

“You know,” Fox began, his voice soft, as he scooted closer. “Peppy told me something today.”

“Oh?”

“He told me you asked him what I like to eat in the morning.”

Falco huffed out a laugh. “That snitch. Yeah, I was thinking about making you something to eat for when ya got out of the shower. He didn’t have an answer, and before I could really think I heard the ship’s water system stop, so I knew you were done. I just decided not to go through with it.”

Fox grinned. “You saying that you, Falco Lombardi, gave up on something? Wow!”

“Shut up,” Falco rolled his eyes, moving to lay on his back and looking up at the ceiling. 

Fox looked at him with a shifty smile and before Falco could question it, the vulpine moved closer until he was situated underneath Falco’s arm, plastered to his side. He clung onto him like his life depended on it.

“And you were the one sayin’ you wouldn’t be able to get rid of me?” Falco joked with him. “I think you got it mixed—“

His voice broke off with a surprised sound when Fox suddenly began moving his fingers along his side in a way that tickled him. He’d never heard Falco yelp before, but he managed to bring one out of him. 

“Admit it! You gave up,” Fox yipped between laughter, not stopping even when Falco lightly punched him when he swung his arms.

“Fuck, alright! You win, I did give up,” Falco spoke the best he could with his laughter, desperate to catch his breath when Fox stopped. “God damn, McCloud.”

Fox laughed along with him at his last sentence. When he calmed down, he added with a smirk, “And for your information, I like eggs.”

Falco rolled his eyes with a soft huff, a grin forming on his beak. “Good to know, but I’m sorry, princess, we ain’t got any of those to begin with.”

“You’re an asshole,” Fox rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t control the smile that took up his face.

“Yeah? So are you. A bigger one, I might add. Hell, you’re a jerk, too.”

“What else?” Fox asked jokingly, nuzzling his snout against the crook of Falco’s neck and breathing in, getting comfortable. 

“You’re selfish. You can be loud. You’re bossy as hell, too,” Falco spoke with a smirk, a wing coming down to hold onto Fox’s back. “You’re stubborn. Reckless, brash, self-absorbed...cute.”

“Repeat that last one?” 

“Ya heard me. I said you’re—the fuck, Fox? Gross!” Falco’s sentence quickly cut off when Fox leaned over and playfully licked a stripe up Falco’s cheek, getting slobber plastered in his feathers. Falco huffed, wiping at the wet spot. “I swear you ain’t even a fox, you’re just some ugly dog breed from Hell.”

“Well, I’m still a canine, so I guess it counts,” Fox laughed along with the bird. He quieted when a thought came to mind. “Hey, remember that one personal thing that was bothering you yesterday?”

“Mmh?”

“What was that about?”

Falco huffed a small laugh. “Somethin’ like this, actually. After we hung out together it got me thinkin’ and I was trying to decide when to tell you about...how I feel.”

Fox wanted to fawn over him because of how cute it was. “You sound like a lovestruck girl.”

Falco snorted. “Shut up. You ain’t never even had a girlfriend before.”

“And you’re saying you have?”

“I have!”

Fox sat up on his elbows, looking back at him. “No way. Who? And _when?_ ”

Falco crossed his arms beneath his head, relaxing in the position. He gave Fox a smug look. “You ain’t gonna get jealous, are ya?”

Fox kept his goofy grin, urgent to hear the answer. “Do I look jealous? C’mon, tell me!”

“Alright, alright! Quit yappin’.” Falco gently pushed him with his foot. “I was fifteen but I knew her growing up. You wouldn’t have known her. Met her again at a party, we caught up, dated...didn’t work out. Obviously.”

“That’s such bullshit.”

“I’m tellin’ the truth!” Falco laughed, arms shooting out in feigned surrender when Fox grabbed one of his pillows and scooted closer, hovering over Falco on his knees as he slammed the pillow down over his head. 

Falco grabbed the pillow when the vulpine least expected it, snatching it from his grip. “Y’know, if it had worked out, I’d be with her right now instead of letting ya get on my damn nerves.” He finished his joke with a slap of the pillow across Fox’s face, the force knocking him backwards.

Fox laughed out, landing on his back. He didn’t sit back up, looking at the ceiling. “Well? What did she look like? Was she cuter than me?”

Falco snorted, and he repeated, “You jealous?”

“Fuck no! Tell me, man, I’m curious. Was she cuter or what?”

“Ya keep asking me that and I’m gonna say yes,” Falco teased him. “No, she wasn’t, but she was okay. Nice lookin’ feline, she had really bright pink fur. I always thought she dyed it. Said it was natural, but...”

Fox sat up and crossed his legs, looking at Falco. “Why didn’t it work out?”

Falco shrugged. “She got a little overbearing. Did almost everything she could to try to make me jealous. I felt like I couldn’t breathe around her.”

Fox felt a pang in his heart as it ached for Falco, feeling guilt for bringing up the subject if it was still a sore one. “Oh. I’m sorry.”

“Nah. I don’t care. Wouldn’t have said somethin’ if it bothered me,” Falco shrugged, waving a wing dismissively. “‘Sides, I got you now. C’mere.”

Fox obeyed with a soft smile, scooting closer to Falco once again. They looked at each other for a brief moment before Falco suddenly wrapped his arms around Fox and brought him down, surprise attacking him in a hug.

Fox fell over his chest as he was squeezed, but he didn’t complain. He enjoyed the warmth of Falco’s feathers. He’d stay in that spot forever if he could.

They laid there in a comfortable silence, and Fox could almost fall asleep if it weren’t for the way his stomach suddenly growled, the hunger lurching painfully. Fox leaned up, a tiny blush spreading when Falco looked at him quizzically.

Something clicked in Falco’s head. “Wait. Have you eaten _anything_ today?”

“No, but...”

Falco sat up. “Jeez, Fox. Come on, we have to get you something to eat. We’re not gonna be eating first thing tomorrow when we get to Corneria. What happens if you pass out in front of the General?”

“I feel fine, Falco.” It was a lie, but Fox just didn’t want to move from their spot. He was too comfortable. 

“Nope. I’ll carry ya in there if I have to,” Falco shook his head. Before the red fox could say anything, he was scooped up in the avian’s arms as he moved off the bed and left the room.

Fox protested for a brief moment before curling into his chest, finding the embrace nice and comforting. Falco leaned down slightly and pressed a kiss on his forehead as he walked to the break room.

Once in the room, the power system flickered on. Falco walked over to one of the counter tops and set Fox down. His feet hung from the counter when he sat, not able to touch the ground by over a good half the length of the counter. Falco stood between his legs, hands placed on either side of Fox’s knees, and nuzzled his forehead against the vulpine’s own.

“I’ll fix ya something quick,” Falco promised him. He stepped away from the fox. “And I’ll actually do it this time, too. You want anything specific?”

Fox’s whiskers twitched. “I don’t care. Toast would be fine.”

“You sure about that nasty stuff?”

“Hey, Peppy found a way to make it taste good! And besides, it’s late, and it’s quick and simple. Not a heavy meal, either.”

Falco rolled his eyes with a snicker, leaning in for the last time to peck a kiss on the side of Fox’s face. “Whatever ya want, princess.”

Fox pushed Falco away with his paw on the bird’s head, laughing. “Stop calling me that. What did you eat for dinner?”

“Just ate cereal again,” Falco shrugged as he stepped away from the fox, off to the cabinets. He took out a can of bread, inspecting it. “I hope we get some actual loaves this time.”

“We will, but you know they don’t last long. That’s why we got the canned stuff.”

Falco didn’t comment further as he opened it, taking it out and slicing up two pieces and then popping it in the toaster. He set the can aside. The soft whirr of the toaster filled the silence in the room.

While they waited, Falco walked back over to where Fox was still seated on the counter. He situated himself between Fox’s legs again, nuzzling his head against the vulpine’s own.

Fox breathed an amused laugh. “You had enough of me, yet?”

“I never will. I guess I’m still trying to register everything.”

Fox smiled. “You’re so clingy. You can’t even step away from me for five seconds.”

“Are ya complainin’?”

“No.”

“Good,” Falco grinned. “Because I might just let your toast burn if ya was.”

“Hey, check it, actually! The toaster is set pretty high. Peppy always turns his into basically charcoal,” Fox urged, pointing at the toaster.

Falco did as he was asked and popped up the bread. The circular slices had a medium brown along the edges and it grew lighter the closer it got to the center. “This fine?”

Fox hopped down off the counter, taking one look at the toaster before going to the fridge. “Yup, that’s good.” He took out a stick of butter and brought it over to the toaster as Falco carefully took out the slices and laid them on a plate.

Fox spread butter on the pieces with a knife, then sprinkled cinnamon sugar over the toast.

“This might be a bad idea so late at night,” Falco commented idly when Fox took the first slice and bit into it. “You might not be able to sleep after this with all that sugar.”

“Yeah? I’ll be fine,” Fox replied, his mouth full. “I don’t think I can eat this other slice. You want it?”

Fox let out breathy laugh through his nostrils when Falco wordlessly took the other slice and ate it. “Now,” Fox swallowed, “if I’m going to be awake, so will you.”

Falco had already finished the slice he was given. “Was that your plan?”

“Nah, I just wanted to share with you,” Fox grinned. “We can just hang out, though, and relax. Play some video games maybe.”

“We gotta be up early tomorrow,” Falco stated as the two began to clean up the kitchen. 

“I didn’t think you would care. It should be the other way around.”

“Yeah, but I also don’t want Peppy up my ass if I oversleep.”

Fox snorted. “I’ll set an alarm. And hey, would that be so bad? Oversleeping sounds _nice_ , even if Peppy yells at us.”

Falco waved a wing in front of Fox’s eyes as they walked back to his bedroom. “Hello? This the real Fox? I almost can’t believe the words you’re saying to me right now. And you call yourself a leader?”

“Hey, we’re off duty right now!” Fox protested, playfully shoving Falco’s wing away. They entered the room and the door slid closed behind them. “We got nothing to worry about.”

Just as Falco had predicted, Fox was unable to sleep immediately from the sugar he had consumed, but the avian was affected as well—not just from his own slice, but also from the constant attention the vulpine was demanding. If he had to be honest, Falco wasn’t much better, finding himself becoming poutingly clingy every second that Fox wasn’t close to him. 

To pass time, at some point late in the night, Falco had brought both of their video game devices into the room for them to play on. They laughed with each other as they battled on their game, and every ending round led to a play fight between the two where they’d wrestle.

Falco had lost their last game and he peered at Fox slyly as the vulpine saved their data and turned his system off, setting it aside. Before he got the chance to say anything, Falco knocked him over, holding him down in place.

“You’re such a cheat!” Falco laughed, keeping Fox pinned in place as the vulpine moved under his grip. “I swear, ya got your console rigged or somethin’.”

“No, I won fair and square,” Fox playfully bared his fangs at the bird above him. “You’re just a sore loser!”

Falco looked down at the silly expression Fox had and laughed. “Stop that. Ya don’t scare me.”

“You sure about that?” He kept his sharp teeth showing, suppressing a laugh.

“Yeah. You look more cute than anything. Like a puppy tryin’ to seem intimidating.”

Fox’s mouth closed and he looked away, feeling a blush rise on his skin, feeling hot underneath his fur. “Shut up, jerk,” he snorted.

“Nah,” Falco smiled down at him. He moved closer until the base of his beak was lightly grazing Fox’s snout. “I think your reactions are cute.”

Before Fox could respond, Falco tipped his head and closed his beak around Fox’s muzzle in a kiss. The vulpine breathed in through his nose, taking in as much air as he could as their kiss deepened. This was all still new to Fox and he was unsure if he was really doing it right, but he figured if he wasn’t, Falco would complain or tease him, so he imagined he was fine.

They parted and Fox inhaled sharply, panting. It felt like the avian had taken the air straight out of his lungs.

Falco was breathing hard too, looking down at Fox. He pressed their foreheads together, and spoke softly, “Is this okay?”

Fox could only bring himself to nod, his fur brushing against feathers. After his confirmation, they connected in another kiss. Fox wrapped his arms around the bird above him, trying to pull him in closer but Falco barely budged.

Fox let out a small whine, muffled from their kiss, at the tiny distance between them, tugging forward on the feathers of Falco’s head to bring him closer.

Falco parted from their kiss again, wincing. “Ow, jerk!”

“Come closer,” Fox tugged on him again, smirking devilishly. Falco rolled his eyes, crawling forward until he was completely hovering over Fox. He looked down at the vulpine for a brief, ponderous moment before he let all his weight down, landing on top of Fox and winding him. Fox’s breath escaped him with a soft _oof_ , and Falco let out a laugh.

“You asked for me to come closer, and ya got what ya wanted. That was your wish, and...” Falco pulled himself up, using his wings to prop himself. He moved his beak closer to Fox’s face until it looked like he was about to kiss him again. Instead, the blue avian lightly nipped the corner of Fox’s muzzle, gently pulling at his lip until the vulpine let out a soft yelp of surprise. “...And that’s your payback for tuggin’ out my feathers.”

“Jackass! Your feathers are all intact,” Fox rolled his eyes, a paw coming up to rub at the part of his muzzle where Falco bit down. Obviously, it wasn’t enough to draw blood, but the feeling had been a light prick. “I hate you.”

“Really? I thought ya woulda liked it.”

Fox mockingly bared his fangs in response. Falco only looked down at him with a smirk. A blue wing came up and lightly cupped one side of Fox’s face. It pushed lightly, tipping his head to the side, and Falco nuzzled his face in the exposed crook of the vulpine’s neck. Falco was still lying on top of him, and while he was a heavier weight than the canine, Fox didn’t have any complaints. He liked being close to him, no matter the cost.

Every thought in Fox’s head disappeared when Falco began to peck light kisses along the side of his jaw and exposed part of his neck. He inhaled, his breath lightly shuddering. “Falco...”

Fox could hear, almost feel, the smirk that Falco had as he continued to place kisses. “Somethin’ wrong?”

Fox didn’t answer, only moved his head further to the side. He felt chills run down his skin, underneath his fur. There was a brief moment of silence and stillness until he heard Falco let out a small hum of satisfaction and praise before resuming what he was doing.

Fox laid there, his pulse increasing and blood roaring in his ears as Falco kissed along the side of his head, face, and neck. He suddenly let out a soft sound when those kisses gradually turned into bites and nibbles along his skin. Fox wondered if the bird could hear his heart racing in his chest.

If he did hear it, he made no note of it as he continued to softly nibble along the side of Fox’s neck, moving up to kissing and nipping along his jaw.

“You’re gonna kill me, Falco,” Fox breathed out, moving slightly.

“Aw, that’s a bit harsh,” Falco laughed out against the vulpine’s fur, nuzzling the base of his beak against Fox’s jaw.

Fox let a small whine escape his lips. “Why’d you stop?”

“You started complainin’,” Falco said simply as he sat up, looking down at Fox. “Can’t complain _and_ be greedy.” Judging by the bird’s smug expression, Fox knew he was only joking, and was only acting like this to mess with the vulpine.

Fox knew that Falco wanted him to ask for it, but he wasn’t going to give in so easily.

“C’mon,” Fox urged him, moving his head further to the side to expose parts of his neck. Falco didn’t follow through, giving him a sly look before moving away from the vulpine, to his side of the bed. A whine sounded in the room as the avian moved away.

Fox sat up regretfully. The fur around where Falco had been kissing him was disheveled, sticking up in places and very messy. The vulpine crawled over towards the bird, tail wagging behind him, occasionally thumping against the bed.

“What?” Falco asked with a smirk.

Fox looked at him with large eyes, but his expression eventually straightened when the avian didn’t budge, and he playfully bared his fangs. “Jerk. You know what I want.”

“I can’t read ya mind, McCloud.”

Fox tried almost everything to get the bird’s attention. He let his wagging, bushy tail thump against the bird’s legs, he nuzzled his snout against the crook of Falco’s neck, he poked and prodded at the bird’s wings with his paws, pushing and pulling on him. He even rolled over on his back with his stomach faced upwards, tail wagging beneath him, a sign of trust and playfulness.

Still, the bird did not budge. Fox was about to admit defeat and just ask him when he suddenly got an idea. He crawled over to the bird, wrapping himself around one of Falco’s wings in an affectionate manner. It seemed innocent enough as he idly played with the feathers.

That was, until Fox took the wing and bit down on it. It wasn’t hard, and it didn’t hurt Falco, but it was sudden and surprising. The avian couldn’t help it when he gasped out and pulled his wing away. Despite it being moved, Fox grasped onto it, continuing to nibble on it, much softer than before.

“You’re a real jerk,” Falco huffed, trying to pull his wing away again, but to no avail. “All ya had to do was ask.”

“No, because I knew that’s what you were wanting to hear,” Fox pulled away and smirked. “You won’t hear me beg yet.” Fox took the wing again and continued to gently nip along it.

“You get on my nerves,” Falco laughed softly.

“You still like me, though.”

“Yeah.” Falco pulled his wing away when the vulpine had stopped biting at it. He sat up from where he was leaning against the bed frame, moving closer to Fox. He leaned in and tipped Fox’s chin up with a finger and held it there as he closed the distance with a sudden kiss. He pulled away when the Fox gasped for breath, and Falco smiled softly. “Yeah, I do.”

Before Fox could say anything, Falco dove in for yet another kiss, this time deeply. The vulpine let out a soft noise at the feeling of Falco’s tongue sliding against his fangs, silently asking for entry. He didn’t think twice as he opened his muzzle slightly, allowing the bird entrance. Fox felt embarrassed with the unusual sounds that escaped him as the bird explored his mouth passionately. 

The kiss seemed to roughen when Falco had realized the kinds of sounds he could bring out of the vulpine. Fox let the bird move him backwards until he was lying on his back once again with the bird hovering above him. Not once had their connected kiss broke as they moved. After what seemed like forever, they parted and Fox let out a soft gasp, panting gently as his lungs desperately screamed for air.

While Fox caught his breath back, Falco dipped his head down, resuming what he had been doing earlier before he had stopped. He began again with the trail of kisses along the canine’s neck that turned into soft nibbles and bites.

Fox didn’t try to hold back the noises he was making anymore as he felt his skin begin to heat up under is fur with the attention he was being given.

“You’re cute like this, Foxie,” Falco purred suddenly, moving his beak away. The nickname slipped off his tongue easily. “I never knew the leader of Star Fox could have such a side like this to ‘im.”

Fox breathed a laugh. “Yeah? Guess I’m full of surprises.”

Falco hummed, petting along the small section of exposed fur on the canine’s stomach where his tank top had ridden up. He went back to kissing along the canine’s neck as he ran his feathers along the canine’s stomach, his wing traveling up his chest under the tank top. Falco gave him a soft, chaste kiss on the mouth before pulling back, followed by a whine from the vulpine.

“Fox, have you ever...?” Falco’s voice trailed off, the question left unsaid, though they both knew what he was referring to. 

“No...” Fox swallowed. “...Have you?”

“No...I mean, ah, almost—I almost had my first time, but...no.”

Fox sat up, looking at the avian from where he sat on his knees. He didn’t notice before, but he could suddenly see an uncharacteristically nervous, almost shy, look in the blue bird. Falco hardly met his gaze.

“Hey, we don’t have to continue if you’re not ready,” Fox moved so he was on his knees, scooting forward until he was in front of Falco. He reached his paws up and held the falcon’s face, and gradually, emerald eyes met another set of green eyes as the avian looked at him.

“It’s hard to tell,” Falco laughed softly to himself. “Y’know, I thought I would be, but...I dunno. I don’t know why I feel like this.”

“Don’t put yourself down! I don’t know if I’m ready either,” Fox assured him with a small smile. “Everything happened so fast I...We’ll take our time, okay?”

Falco snorted lightly. “Feels weird. Like I should be the one givin’ you this talk instead of the other way around.”

Fox shook his head with a smile. “I don’t care, Falco. You don’t gotta act tough all the time around me.”

Falco huffed amusedly, but he didn’t comment further. Fox smiled lovingly at him, looking into his eyes before his gaze trailed down towards his beak. His paws were still cupping the sides of his face, and his thumb gently stroked the feathers underneath his touch. “Can I kiss you?”

“Ya don’t even have to ask, idiot,” Falco laughed. “What d’ya think we’ve been doing this whole time?”

“Shut up, you’re ruining the moment,” Fox joked, not allowing Falco to respond with whatever quick comeback he had, before he leaned in and pressed their lips together. Their kiss seemed sweeter than it’d ever been before, and Fox felt like it could rot his teeth out. The vulpine felt himself melting into it, but he gathered his composure when he felt himself running out of breath.

He pulled away for a brief moment, catching his breath, but Falco pulled him back in for another soft kiss. It lasted a few seconds and was better than the last, and when they parted once again, Fox knew they were both feeling exhausted.

Falco seemed to have the same thing on mind. “We’re only going to get a few hours of sleep tonight,” he commented.

At the mention of sleep, Fox yawned. “Yeah? I didn’t realize how much time had passed.” He leaned over his bed, grabbing his alarm and setting the time for 5 AM. They were both going to regret having stayed up, but hopefully their arrival in Corneria would keep them awake. “Mmh, we’re waking up at five. We’ll probably have reached orbit not long before that.”

Falco groaned outwardly, though he didn’t say anything about the time. Instead, he asked, “You think we’re really gonna have a safe time off?”

“I sure hope so. I think the General hopes so too. He knows we need it the most.”

Falco looked at the current time that displayed on Fox’s clock. “We’re only going to be able to sleep for two and a half hours.” Grumpily, the avian scooted to one side of the bed and got under the covers, laying down and getting comfortable.

Fox grinned, joining him under the covers. “And who was using the time we could have been sleeping to slobber all over my face?” Despite his tease, the vulpine cuddled up against Falco’s side from where the avian was lying on his back.

Falco huffed, a wing coming down to wrap around the smaller body of the red fox. “Shut up. I know ya liked it.”

Fox didn’t say anything, letting out a satisfied hum of acknowledgement as he breathed in the bird’s scent, feeling the closeness in the warmth that their bodies shared. He felt Falco shift slightly, sinking further into the mattress. He tipped his head to the side until it was resting against Fox’s own.

With a content sigh, Fox nuzzled his head up in the space of the crook of the bird’s neck, getting comfortable. He listened to and felt the pattern of Falco’s breathing for the second night, noticing the moment the bird fell asleep, and it wasn’t long before the vulpine joined him.


End file.
